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Google's freebies cost taxpayers $7 Billion
By siliconindia
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Wednesday, 10 December 2008, 19:44 IST |
2 Comments
Bangalore: U.S. based internet search giant Google's free web-based alternatives for expensive softwares, are taking a heavy toll on the taxpayers' wallet, asserts a study. The company is said to be using 21 times more bandwidth than the amount it pays for, while providing the alternatives, which ultimately costs the tax payers about seven billion dollars a year.
However, Google has strongly challenged the study claiming that the report has been authored by someone who is paid by phone and cable companies like AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner to be a critic to damage Google's image.
The study, by Scott Cleland of the Precurser Group, a research and consulting firm specializing in the converging telecom sector, claimed that Google was by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth in the U.S., using 16.5 percent of all U.S. consumer internet traffic, which is presumed to touch 25 percent by 2009 and 37 percent by 2010. However, the company's payment to fund the U.S. consumer broadband internet segment is estimated at $344 million for 2008, which is a meager 0.8 percent of the total U.S. consumers' flat-rate monthly internet access costs of $44 billion. The author considers the finding to be important at this time when the internet search giant is trying to bring the InternetForEveryone.org, whereby high-speed internet connections will be available for the common man at an affordable rate.