This has shades of net neutrality debate: in UK, three of the biggest broadband providers Tiscali, BT and Carphone Warehouse, among others, have spoken to BBC amid growing anger over the BBC’s hitching a “free ride” with its new iPlayer system for downloading TV programs online, reports ThisisMoney. The execs include BT Retail’s CEP Ian Livingston, Carphone Warehouse boss Charles Dunstone and Tiscali UK’s chief Mary Turner, and the talks are centered around issues if iPlayer takes off, resulting in “clogging” of bandwidth pipes in UK. Regulator Ofcom believes that the cost of providing enough capacity will be up to GBP 830 million over five years.

Independent: Some of the companies involved have told the BBC that they will consider limiting the bandwidth available to iPlayer. The measure would limit the number of consumers who could access the iPlayer at any one time.

FT: “The internet was not set up with a view to distributing video. We have been improving our capacity, but the bandwidth we have is not infinite,” said Mary Turner, CEO of Tiscali UK. “If the iPlayer really takes off, consumers accessing the internet will get very slow service and will call their ISPs to complain.”