"Customer is 'KING?' " What planet are you on?

Reporting from the TelecomNext trade show in Las Vegas, my colleague Marguerite Reardon writes that a consensus of a Monday panel consisting of telecom and content execs are repeating the "customer is king" mantra.

Participants in that panel included the CEOs of Time Warner Cable, Verizon Communications, (with a portion of the fine-print DSL agreement shown above) Disney (which owns ABC-TV) and Japan based telephony services giant NTT.

But let us get beyond the sloganeering, shall we?

At this particular panel, the concept of "net neutrality" seemed as popular as ants at a picnic.

Britt of Time Warner Cable stated his belief that his company should not be regulated like the old phone companies have been in the past.

"Regulations should be used judiciously," Reardon quotes him as saying. "You can expect us to oppose any regulation that tilts toward one side."

Verizon is on record against net neutrality, too. Even Iger doesn't like the idea.

So let me get this straight. These companies believe that the "customer is king," but at the same time these conglomerates are opposed to mandates that would compel them to offer equal treatments for packets sent over their networks by large content providers and competitors?

Packets the "king"- i.e. customers- have already paid for?

No, the customer is not "king." The customer is there to be served, sure, but also to be assessed whatever fine-print fees the broadband duopolists can come up with and compliant regulators and legislatures allow in the name of competition.

Fees with income generation potential to please the institutional investors who hold large blocks of stock in most of these companies.

The institutional investors are the real "kings." 

Surfers? Serfs.