Jealousy of Baby

Fred Wilson says that when the Baby Bells are talking about charging Google to deliver their pages at the same fast rate as everyone else that the telco's are jealous of Google's margins and stock performance.  I am outraged by this concept and only a bunch of Monopolies like BellSouth and Verizon could suggest it.  It's exactly like an airline being told by your travel agent that you're ultimately going to be staying at a Four Seasons hotel.  So the airline calls up the Four Seasons and says "Hey, pay up a spiff or your customer will have his packets, er, I mean his lugguage delayed."  It's a kind of blackmail:  "Google, If you don't pay up, I'll slow down your bytes so that everyone will switch to your competitors". 

I believe the real reason that the Baby Bells are talking about this concept is the threat that VOIP has to their traditional phone service.  They absolutely need to slow down and add static to Vonage and competitors so that they will continue to be able to charge monopoly rates for phone service.

I hope that WiMAX or some other technology gives these dinosaurs the competition they richly deserve.