November 06, 2005
SBC Does a Backtrack on CEO Comments
: So it was a momentary lapse of reason for SBC CEO Ed Whitacre...the company is now backtracking from the earlier comments made by Whitacre..in an interview with BW last week, he said that Google, MSN, Vonage, and others may have to pay to get access to their broadband pipes.Now, an SBC spokeperson says that his remarks were misinterpreted (really? they were crystal clear..): the spokeperson said Whitacre was not talking about charging companies for letting customers access their Web sites. Rather, he said, Whitacre was referring to access Internet companies may want to the "managed and secure" portions of the fiber-optic network SBC is building largely to deliver video to customer homes...They were not made in the context of the Internet, but rather SBC's $4 billion investment in its new fiber network to provide Internet-based video services," spokesperson said.
