Who pays?

"BusinessWeek: How concerned are you about Internet upstarts like Google (GOOG), MSN, Vonage, and others?

Whitacre: How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?

The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! (YHOO) or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts! "


Well, things are not as seen sometimes.
The cable companies or Internet Providers own or lease the broadband lines and MAKE A (HUGE) PROFIT leasing them to customers.

It is not YAHOO GOOGLE and so using the pipes for FREE it is the customers USING the pipes they PAY FOR...