Netflix Partner Says Comcast ‘Toll’ Threatens Online Video Delivery

[castalianspring]

Or, Why Net Neutrality is ImportantLevel 3 Communications, a central partner in the Netflix online movie service, accused Comcast on Monday of charging a new fee that puts Internet video companies at a competitive disadvantage

Comments

[acmeeoy]

Signed.

[recorded]

what show is your icon from and is it an adorable drama?

[acmeeoy]

Kamen Rider Double, a tokusatsu action show, so it's half comedy, half drama. The character in this one, Akiko, provides the comedy.

[lithiumflower]

So Comcast charges me for the bandwidth I'm using and charges Level 3 for the bandwidth I'm using. I see.

I think its rather interesting that Level 3 paid. I wonder if they tapped Netflix? Then I'd feel better about Netflix increasing my plan $3 a month. Personally, I feel they should have stopped and let the customers in on all the fun.

[ouronlylight]

Ugh, Comcast. They would try to do this. I hate it when douchebags like Glenn Beck try to claim that net neutrality is evil and communist or whatever; net neutrality is desperately necessary for us to have a free, open Internet. I hope the FCC shuts down Comcast's extortion plan.

Comcast could speed up streams of NBC programs...

NBC streaming online is SO SLOW, OMG. My Internet at my parents' is really fast (and it's Comcast, I'm sorry to say), but in my apartment at school I have Cavalier, I think, and video takes forever to load, but NBC's stuff is the worst. Please just make NBC faster in general, kthnx.

[jakethejuggalo]

It's funny that Level 3 had the same exact pissing match with Cogent a while back:

"For example, Cogent was sending far more traffic to the Level 3 network than Level 3 was sending to Cogent's network. It is important to keep in mind that traffic received by Level 3 in a peering relationship must be moved across Level 3's network at considerable expense. Simply put, this means that, without paying, Cogent was using far more of Level 3's network, far more of the time, than the reverse. Following our review, we decided that it was unfair for us to be subsidizing Cogent's business."

Here are a few other sources that have better reporting on the issue:

http://www.multichannel.com/blog/BIT_RATE/31830-Level_3_Plays_Politics_In_Internet_Peering_Spat_With_Comcast.phpReply

[recorded]

So does youtube pay a fee as well?
Some of this makes sense to me, but some of it doesn't.

[jakethejuggalo]

yes, youtube pays for internet access as well.

comcast and level 3 is a bit of a different situation because they both deliver content. up until the netflix contract, they shared basically the same amount of content between each other, but now that level 3 picked up netflix (which uses 20% of all US bandwidth), comcast is saying that they deliver way more of level 3's content than level 3 delivers of theirs (they claim a 5:1 ratio), so level 3 should pay them for the overage.

there's a good argument from comcast's end, but level 3 is really pushing the net neutrality angle. since comcast sucks ass hard, i'm not inclined to be sympathetic to them, but they do have a valid point.

[recorded]

Thanks for posting this :)
I wasn't sure if it had been earlier and it takes a lot to motivate me to post articles these days.