

How Netflix came to pay Comcast for Internet traffic - sorenbs
http://qz.com/256586/the-inside-story-of-how-netflix-came-to-pay-comcast-for-internet-traffic/

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eck
As a customer of both Netflix and an ISP that participates in Open Connect,
I'm slightly annoyed that Netflix didn't turn around and immediately pass this
charge on to their users that connect from Comcast. Why should _I_ have to
subsidize that? I wonder if their agreement forbids that.

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frandroid
Because this would enable Comcast to then increase what fees it charges
Netflix, higher and higher, until either Netflix says "that's enough", and
don't pass on that increase, or Netflix starts losing customers to say, a
cheaper competitor that Comcast prefers because it owns (part of) it. Better
stop these games at the door. Most Comcast customers don't have a choice of
provider anyway, so it's not like they can choose a different ISP to connect
to Netflix. You don't want to penalize customers stuck buying from a monopoly.

Other customers paying $8/month to get this amazing Netflix service and are
"forced" to "subsidize" Comcast customers, that won't elicit much tears from
me. :P

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r00fus
That cheaper competitor by Comcast already exists:
[http://www.comcast.com/streampix](http://www.comcast.com/streampix)

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frandroid
Oh dear. Thanks for the link. Hello anti-trust. Hollywood Studios were split
up once for this.

    
    
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        history = true
      }

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RexRollman
What I don't understand is: if I am paying Comcast and Netflix is paying
Comcast, then why does Netflix traffic count against me? Comcast is already
getting paid twice!

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0x0
On the other hand, if your entire business idea revolves around pumping
several orders of magnitude more data than anyone else normally does, is it
still reasonable to assume others will foot the bill building the
infrastructure?

If someone told you in 2001 that they would start a service based on
delivering millions of full HD video streams concurrently over the internet,
would you be able to take them seriously?

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wdewind
> On the other hand, if your entire business idea revolves around pumping
> several orders of magnitude more data than anyone else normally does, is it
> still reasonable to assume others will foot the bill building the
> infrastructure?

Except Netflix is not _pumping_ data anywhere. This data has already been paid
for and is being requested by Comcast's network. They also are not asking
anyone to "foot the bill" \- they've offered to pay for it entirely.

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0x0
It's a reality that consumer internet is heavily oversubscribed, and sold with
the assumption that the average load is much much lower than 100% per
costumer. You can claim that the data is already paid for because you are
paying for X mbps, but the real price for sustained X mbps 100% is much
higher. The alternatives are charging a helluva lot more per customer to
actually cover costs (business-level pricing) or a much much lower mbps limit.

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skorgu
_shrug_ that's business. You pays your money and takes your chances. Comcast
(et al) gambled on some level of oversubscription and that's not working for
them in reality. It's hard to argue that Netflix is somehow at fault for any
of this and it's only the monopoly power of the last-mile ISPs in the US
that's making this even a consideration.

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thegenius
This article assumes readers will have the background to understand all the
jibberish it presents. Meanwhile, it does't paint anything close to a clear
picture on the inside scoop of "How Netflix cam to pay Comcast for Internet
traffic". That makes the article damn near worthless IMO

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yonran
Perhaps the blog excerpted too little of the petition (it started at page 55,
or PDF page 63). I recommend starting at section V.C on page 52, or PDF page
60 instead. I think the description of Comcast’s actions since 2009 paints a
pretty damning picture of Comcast’s abuse of its monopoly on high-speed last-
mile wire in many parts of the US.

Or, read the entire petition, which is a good read; it’s 100 double-spaced
pages. The PDF also includes other evidence: 22 pages of statement from Ken
Florance, VP of Content Delivery (PDF page 110) and 100 pages from economist
David Evans (PDF page 134).

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jeremycw
I wouldn't mind this if I knew that the money was actually going toward
upgrading infrastructure and not just lining Comcast's pockets.

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pzxc
I didn't know that Netflix is now also paying AT&T, Verizon, and TWCable too!

