Telco's plotting to change the internet
 

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060213/chester

That's crazy!

The Telco's are forgetting that they don't own the land that most of their infrastructure runs through. Sure, they've paid for the right to use the land but if they start doing a money grab for Internet access then the land owners (Federal, State and municipalities) should turn around an raise the rent.

That's no necessarily true. Qwest owns 300 yards variance off of a lot of railways, Anschutz kept the rights when he sold the train lines. Smart man.

I didn't know that. That was smart! But they still need to bring their lines into the urban centers and ultimately to the end users. Owning the land that gets you 99% of the way there makes no difference if you can't connect up the last 1%.

The last mile is always local telco like Verizon, SBC etc... no worries there.

Yes, but who owns the land?

The local loop companies have contractural variances/right of way for years.