[133690] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard A Steenbergen)
Wed Dec 15 21:45:36 2010
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:45:19 -0600
From: Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net>
To: Jack Bates <jbates@brightok.net>
In-Reply-To: <4D0965D6.3090907@brightok.net>
Cc: Adam Rothschild <asr+nanog@latency.net>, Kevin Neal <kevin@safelink.net>,
nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 07:05:26PM -0600, Jack Bates wrote:
> On 12/15/2010 4:47 PM, Adam Rothschild wrote:
> > Folk in
> > content/hosting should find this all more than a little bit scary.
>=20
> So you don't think the money content providers will pay Comcast won't=20
> reflect on other eyeball networks who aren't important/large enough to=20
> request financing? ie, Comcast could run lower rates and offer better=20
> service by charging the content provider, while competitive eyeball=20
> networks won't get the option to receive compensation from content=20
> providers and have to charge appropriate rates to their customers.
And if you saw someone getting mugged on the street, you could argue=20
that you're now less likely to be robbed because the guy already has=20
someone else's money...
If Comcast wanted to grow its revenue by offering a better, faster,=20
cheaper, etc, wholesale transit service to content networks, I don't=20
think anyone here would object in the slightest. The problem is that=20
rather than compete on any kind of financial or technical merit, they've=20
decided to hold their cable customers hostage and FORCE content networks=20
to buy from them. Rest assured nobody WANTS to buy transit from a=20
network with a 109ms rtt between New York and San Jose (it boggles the=20
mind how one could even manage to assemble that fiber path, let alone=20
try to charge money for it :P), congestion on every port, etc.
If Comcast gets away with this, what's to stop every other=20
monopoly/duopoly eyeball network from doing the same thing? And yes=20
maybe if Comcast forces Netflix to pay them to reach you (either=20
directly or indirectly via Level 3), your cable modem bill might go=20
down, but all that means is that your Netflix bill is going to go up. At=20
the end of the day you're probably better off betting on lower costs=20
=66rom the technical innovation of the networks who DON'T pay $50k for a=20
10GE port. :)
--=20
Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net> http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)
