|
Google gobbling up $7 bn of taxpayers' money every year: Study
Washington, Dec 09, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) --
Online search giant Google, known for promoting free web-based alternatives to costly software products, has been charged with using 21 times more bandwidth than what it pays for, thus making the internet costlier for others and costing taxpayers about USD 7 billion a year.
On its part, Google has challenged the study labelling charges against it, saying that the report has been authored by someone being paid by phone and cable companies like AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner to be "a full time Google critic." The study, by Scott Cleland of the Precurser Group, a research and consulting firm specialising in the converging telecom sector, claimed that Google was by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth in the US and its bandwidth usage, which was rising rapidly, was greater than its payment for its cost.
The study estimated that Google has used 16.5 per cent of all US consumer internet traffic this year and it is estimated to grow to 25 per cent in 2009 and 37 per cent in 2010.
However, the company's payment to fund the US consumer broadband internet segment is estimated at USD 344 million for 2008, which is just 0.8 per cent of the US consumer's flat-rate monthly internet access costs of USD 44 billion.
"Thus, Google's 16.5 per cent share of all 2008 US consumer bandwidth usage is about 21 times greater than Google's 0.8 per cent share of US consumer bandwidth costs -- on an implicit about 6.9 billion dollar subsidy of Google by US consumers," Cleland wrote in the study.
Cleland said that the findings of the study were important in the wake of Google being the driving force behind InternetForEveryone.Org, which is pushing "to adopt a national plan to bring open, high-speed internet connections into every home, at a price all of us can afford".
"Internet connections could be more affordable for everyone if Google paid its fair share of the Internet's cost," the study said, adding, it was "ironic" that the largest user of internet capacity was paying the least proportionately. "[T]he company, poised to profit more than any other from more broadband deployment, expects the American taxpayer to pick up its skyrocketing bandwidth tab," the study added.
Cleland concluded in the study that "any sustainable national broadband policy must ensure that the heaviest internet users pay their fair share of the internet infrastructure costs".
Reacting to the study, Google's Telecom and Media Counsel in Washington, Richard Whitt, wrote on the company's public policy blog that Cleland was "of course, not exactly a neutral analyst" and "he is paid by the phone and cable companies -- AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner and others -- to be a full time Google critic".
Google went on to say that the study about its unfair internet usage was part of Cleland's "payola punditry" and he has made "significant methodological and factual errors" in his report. A 'Payola Pundit' is a paid critic who gives expert views in favour of or against something, based on payment.
Last month, media reports had said that Google spent USD 720,000 in the third quarter on government lobbying for things like patent and trade measures to online privacy. It lobbied on the regulations related to internet advertising and competition as well as a proposed advertising partnership with Yahoo, which was later abandoned.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
INDUSTRIES
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, September 1-3, 2009. Los Angeles, CA.
