Is Google Being Slammed With Bad Math?

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December 8, 2008 · Posted in Wholesale Advertising Tips 
by Marie Marra


You know what “they” say about statistics: Numbers, Lies and More Damned Lies. Or: Figures Lie and Liars Figure.

A recent report from a consultant paid by the telecommunications industry claims that search giant Google is using more than 20 times the bandwidth that Google pays for. This Google-slamming report features numbers, statistics and – according to Internet Industry watchers – damned lies.

Karl Bode in Broadband Reports notes that, according to Scott Cleland’s “scientific-looking study,” Google (and/or Google’s users; it’s not clear) used up 16.5% of all U.S. consumer Internet traffic in 2008. But search giant Google paid “only” $344 Million for its 2008 bandwidth, which is – Incoming! Statistics! Numbers! – merely 0.8% of Internet access costs charged to U.S. consumers ($44 Billion). Hence, the headline: Google Using 21x The Bandwidth They Pay For.

Bode of Broadband Reports says much more:
This statistical cat fight got started in 2005 when AT&T’s CEO Ed Whitacre told Business Week that Google was NOT going to use AT&T’s inter-toob pipelines for free, ignoring the fact that Google and its users already pay for bandwidth. AT&T chief Whitacre simply wants his “cut” of the advertising pie. Some industry observers called this “extortion” against Google. Bode called it:

Ed’s dream world (where), in addition to bandwidth costs already
paid by you and Google, you’d both pay the troll under the bridge
to use that connection

And

Enter the pseudo-scientists and public relations wizards.

And

“… fantastic job taking greedy ramblings (and) donning them with pseudo-
science … ahead of a rekindled debate over network neutrality before DC
lawmakers. Public relations designed to vilify Google while fostering Whitacre’s
dream of a future Internet where already very profitable companies don’t have
to pay for their own expenses, and everyone is double or triple billed.

Julian Sanchez, in Ars Technica, used words like “manifestly bogus” regarding …

“… this line about Google “free riding” on their bandwidth … not only fails
to convince anybody, but serves as a reminder that the telecoms’ position
in this debate is motivated above all by the dream of extracting rents from
large firms like Google.”

Bode and Sanchez point out who financed the Google-slamming “statistical” report —
Cleland is paid by AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner Cable. Motive according to Bode –

Google angered Cleland’s employers, by advocating network neutrality and
increased broadband competition while fighting metered billing.
… This time, with graphs!

All this is part of the street fight over Net Neutrality and faster, cheaper broadband access for all.

Check out other writer combatants at the Free Press.net News Wire, including:

· Can We Get Some Better Telecom Shills, Please? (Sanchez);

· Cleland doesn’t know how much Google actually pays for broadband, so he just makes one up. (Masnick of TechDirt); and another “damned statistic” …

· Right now, the United States lacks a national broadband plan, and the country has fallen to 22nd in the world in terms of high-speed Internet adoption. (Megan Tady, One Nation Online)

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