This is part 1 in a series on Internet peering and network neutrality

In an Internet "shot heard round the world," AT&T's former chairman Ed Whitacre stated in reference to Google and Microsoft's Internet content:

"How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?" (Ed Whitacre, Former Chairman of AT&T)