French ISP ‘ORANGE’ charging Google to send traffic over its network.

Ain’t this a bitch! That French ISP is charging Google to send traffic over its network. Ain’t that a tart blast of citrus to the eyes? Oh man. I don’t know. I really wanted to work in some sort of metaphor there, after promising myself I wouldn’t run on some socialism schtick. Eh. Whatever. Read the fucking post. If you want.

The Verge:

French telecom Orange says that it reached a “balance of forces” with Google, successfully requiring it to pay to send traffic over Orange’s network. Earlier this week,CEO Stephane Richard told BFM Business TV that Google compensated it for the massive amount of traffic it sent over the network — he claims it uses around 50 percent of Orange traffic — though he didn’t specify how much the company was paying and it’s not clear when the agreement was reached. His admission comes when French ISPs are lobbying to get Google to contribute more to the cost of sending bits. Free, a competitor to Orange, is alleged to have limited YouTube traffic, and in early January, it installed ad-blocking software on its routers, something it later ended after government intervention. Google has also raised the ire of French media sites, who are attempting to make it pay to show excerpts from their articles.