Some of us burn up more of the Internet's bandwidth than others. Take Google. The search giant consumes far more of the Internet's traffic lanes than it actually pays for. That's the conclusion of a provocative study released by tech industry analyst Scott Cleland. In fact, the analysis shows Google is by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth, and that Google's bandwidth use is orders of magnitude greater than its payments for its cost.

Cleland is president of Precursor, a leading tech research firm, and was named an Institutional Investor Magazine top independent telecom analyst in 2004 and 2005. Here's what he found:

-- Google is by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth, generating 16.5% of all U.S. consumer Internet traffic in 2008; Google's share will grow to 25% in 2009 and 37% in 2010.

-- Google in 2008 has paid approximately $344 million toward the operating cost of the part of the Internet used by U.S. consumers using its services; but that's $6.9 billion short of what it costs to supply the bandwidth burned up by Google's highly profitable operations.

Cleland's 27-page study lays out an extensive argument why Google rightly should cover more of the cost. "The core conclusion of the study is that any sustainable national broadband policy must ensure that the heaviest Internet users pay their fair share of Internet infrastructure costs," Cleland says. "It is neither economically rational nor equitable for the biggest users of, and beneficiaries from, shared resources to not share fairly in the recovery of costs."

By Byron Acohido