Block This SBC!!!

Man, what is the deal with SBC? Here they go again with their moronic insistence that content providers must pay SBC to get access SBC customers.

SBC denies it will block video traffic | News.blog | CNET News.com:

"An item in the Sunday edition of the industry newsletter Future of TV.net, published by Broadband Reports publisher Dave Burstein, quoted SBC's chief operating officer, Randall Stephenson, as saying, 'We're going to control the video on our network. The content guys will have to make a deal with us.'

The brief item in the newsletter implies that SBC will block all video traffic traveling over its broadband network even if it comes from the public Internet. This means that SBC would essentially block video traffic from any Web sites that distribute video, if the content provider has not struck a deal with SBC."

SBC denies it, again saying the comments were misinterpreted. Excuse my French, but that is BS. Stephenson was simply echoing the statements of CEO Ed Whitacre (which also prompted an SBC claim of misinterpretation). Every few days another high-level SBC executive opens his mouth and claims that content providers will have to pay them. It couldn't be clearer what these jerks want to do. Of course, if they actually try it the fallout will probably destroy the company. I only hope as SBC collapses it takes their executives down with it.