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Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Web Traffic Jam

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Re: Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Web Traffic Jam

#91

Post by aleem »

erichurkman wrote: post #64
aleem wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not going to happen. The onus is not on the consumer, it's on the service provider. The service provider may transfer the costs onto the consumer but Comcast won't directly charge the consumers a premium. That would be a bad move and Comcast would lose out its customers to competitors.

What competitors? In many areas, they are the only broadband provider. The next-closest providers are typically DSL. Consumers are going to get screwed on the front & back end of this.

> Consumers are going to get screwed on the front & back end of this.

Netflix is network heavy and competes with Comcast offerings using Comcast's own network. That was the key motivator here.

Even if Comcast has a monopoly in select areas, it cannot do price differentiation in just those select areas. IANAL, but that sounds illegal.

Re: Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Web Traffic Jam

#92

Post by briandh »

angersock wrote: post #8

Wait wait wait...so, a company that has something like 60-70% of the market in total monopoly now has successfully ransomed another company who depends on their services? Motherfuckers.

Where are you getting those numbers? It would seem [1] that Comcast has about 24% broadband market share. Subtracting the 3 million or so planned divested lines, even a post-merger Comcast would only have about 34% of the market -- which may be too high for comfort, but is nowhere near 60-70%

[1] http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/usbroadbandsubscr...

Re: Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Web Traffic Jam

#93

Post by cullenking »

callahad wrote: post #32
higherpurpose wrote: post #7

Are the insane? Why would they agree to this weeks after the net neutrality case, and not wait at least until they see what Congress and FCC want to do about it? The only other explanation is that they may actually like this, because they know it would slow down a lot of their smaller competitors coming after them. It's even stranger when you think that customers must've blamed Comcast for their poor Netflix experien…

Netflix could also be seeing declining engagement or subscription metrics for customers on Comcast.

I already had thoughts of dropping netflix due to their streaming quality. It's gotten so bad in the last three or four months that it was like I regressed to watching downloaded xvid's.

Re: Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Web Traffic Jam

#94

Post by ffk »

This might not be an anti-net neutrality deal. Here are the details we know at this point:

1. Netflix is currently using Cogent

2. Comcast offered them a direct connection to their network via paid-peering.

3. Netflix agreed and will move over.

4. Nothing about net neutrality was mentioned in the article.

This deal is being referred to as paid-peering. Peering is a practice performed at ISPs where two ISPs hook up infrastructure and agree to maintain their sides without charging for bandwidth. Peering is a common practice among the industry, and content-providers are always looking for ways to peer with more ISPs because it drives down their overall cost of operations.

The article says nothing about net neutrality. We don't have enough information to say whether net neutrality was harmed in this deal. We can only speculate at this time. Hopefully we will hear more from Netflix on this.

[edit to fix list formatting]

Re: Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Web Traffic Jam

#95

Post by JohnTHaller »

steveplace wrote: post #75
erichurkman wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What competitors? In many areas, they are the only broadband provider. The next-closest providers are typically DSL. Consumers are going to get screwed on the front & back end of this.

run a search at broadbandnow.com, see what you get

Yeah, my building here in NYC, I can get Time Warner or DSL (Verizon or from a reseller). That's it. Lots of us are stuck with 1 or 2 crappy options. I have overpriced Time Warner and a Verizon hotspot as a backup because the TW cable connection goes down about once a month. The other option is DSL which is too slow to do work and was down a week of my 30 day trial when I checked it out years back.

Keep in mind that this is New York City. You'll have lesser options in many other places in the US.

Re: Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Web Traffic Jam

#96

Post by wmf »

twoodfin wrote: post #35
higherpurpose wrote: post #7

Are the insane? Why would they agree to this weeks after the net neutrality case, and not wait at least until they see what Congress and FCC want to do about it? The only other explanation is that they may actually like this, because they know it would slow down a lot of their smaller competitors coming after them. It's even stranger when you think that customers must've blamed Comcast for their poor Netflix experien…

How would Net Neutrality help here? Comcast wasn't throttling Netflix vs. other content, they were refusing to build bigger pipes to Cogent.

It looks like Comcast was refusing to upgrade specifically to hurt Netflix, which falls under the sprit of net neutrality if not the letter.

Re: Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Web Traffic Jam

#97

Post by ffk »

scelerat wrote: post #20

And so the precedent is set. This is the direction I see things going: For $70 a month from Comcast you can get Amazon, Google, and Facebook. For only $10 more a month you can add Netflix and Spotify. Want Pandora? Sorry, you'll have to switch to AT&T for that. The broadband providers are used to this type of packaged service given their history as cable television providers. It's how they make their money beyond pro…

The deal was a paid-peering deal, which would likely drive down Netflix costs. We don't have any information on whether net neutrality was harmed. Hopefully netflix will provide information on this.

Peering is a practice where two sides agree to maintain their side of the infrastructure and not charge for metered bandwidth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peering

Re: Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Web Traffic Jam

#98

Post by peckrob »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #57
cmircea wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not when their competitors will do the same. Heck, what competitors? Many areas only have Comcast service!

>> "Many areas only have Comcast service!" Do a lot of people in the US only have access to one or two ISP's?? If so why? I'm in a not particularly urban part of Ireland and I can choose between at least 5 ISP's, decent speeds, and a good variety of prices.

The answer is, it's complex. It really depends heavily on where you are - and streets matter. But many people only have one or maybe two choices for wired, broadband Internet: DSL or Cable.

I live in a suburb of a medium sized city. At my house, I have 3 choices for wired Internet access: Knology/WOW, AT&T DSL, AT&T Uverse. DSL is right out because it's too slow, so really it's a choice between Cable (Knology) and AT&T's Uverse (which is FTTN or FTTP depending on various factors).

We moved here a couple years ago, two miles away from our old house. Same city, same suburb, just 2 miles difference. At our old house, we didn't have Uverse as an option - it was just slow DSL through the phone company or a single cable provider. If I had lived three streets over (less than 100 yards), I would have had a choice between Comcast or Knology cable, and DSL.

In other areas of the suburb that are further out, you start to see Mediacom (another cable provider). There are probably some areas that Comcast and Mediacom overlap in.

I have a coworker that lives in a rural area, and all he has is Windstream DSL. Cable doesn't reach out that far.

Re: Netflix Agrees to Pay Comcast to End Web Traffic Jam

#100

Post by rdtsc »

aleem wrote: post #44
scelerat wrote: post #20

And so the precedent is set. This is the direction I see things going: For $70 a month from Comcast you can get Amazon, Google, and Facebook. For only $10 more a month you can add Netflix and Spotify. Want Pandora? Sorry, you'll have to switch to AT&T for that. The broadband providers are used to this type of packaged service given their history as cable television providers. It's how they make their money beyond pro…

That is not going to happen. The onus is not on the consumer, it's on the service provider. The service provider may transfer the costs onto the consumer but Comcast won't directly charge the consumers a premium. That would be a bad move and Comcast would lose out its customers to competitors.

In most parts of the country is Comcast had viable competitors , Netflix wouldn't have to pay it. The problems is cable and broadband industry is US is controlled by very few players. In quite a few areas, there is simply no choice (Satellite is just too expensive for many people),
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