Photo: Telecoms talk Net services

Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president for AT&T (left), and Tom Tauke, executive vice president for public affairs for Verizon Communications, said at the TelecomNext trade show this week that their companies have no intention of degrading or blocking other traffic that rides over the public Internet. But Ciccone noted that companies that want delivery of guaranteed high-quality video service will have to buy dedicated pipes from AT&T and other local network operators. He said designing the network to accommodate high-quality video over the public Internet will be too expensive. Tauke said his company has considered offering virtual private network services for content companies to broadband customers on the Verizon network. Verizon and AT&T have been offering VPNs to business customers for years.