AT&T and the telcos are threatening to charge Google and other Web sites extortion-type fees unless Google and others pay for adequate bandwidth. But Google and others may soon have this answer for them: No, thanks. We'll build our own fat pipe into customers' homes. That's the speculation, anyway. Investor's Business Daily points out that big swaths of the wireless spectrum are about to go out to bid -- and whoever buys them could build a high-bandwidth wireless pipe into people's homes and businesses across the country.

Phone companies want to charge Internet firms for moving movies, video games, music and other bandwidth-hungry content over their networks. This is aside from the subscription fees they charge broadband subscribers. Under their plan, Internet firms would pay extra to transmit content via faster and more secure lanes on the Internet highway. Internet firms object. They want lawmakers and regulators to guarantee network neutrality. That means all Internet traffic would be treated the same, and that phone company customers couldn't get special treatment over others.