[172836] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Verizon Public Policy on Netflix
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Miles Fidelman)
Fri Jul 11 11:40:14 2014
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 11:38:03 -0400
From: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net>
CC: NANOG <nanog@nanog.org>
In-Reply-To: <5151a5ca906677bcaa8a26f297796f2b@mail.gmail.com>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
Ahad Aboss wrote:
> Interesting point.
>
> The truth is, the ISP is responsible for the quality of experience for their
> end customers regardless of what content the customers consume or what time
> they consume it. They pay a monthly subscription / access fee and that is
> where it stops. ISPs can chose to blame Netflix until the cows come home or
> alternatively, they can do something more constructive, like deploying a
> cache solution or establishing direct peering with Netflix in one of the
> POIs.
>
Well... if you make a phone call to a rural area, or a 3rd world
country, with a horrible system, is it your telco's responsibility to go
out there and fix it?
One might answer, "of course not." It's a legitimate position, and by
this argument, Netflix should be paying for bigger pipes.
Then again, I've often argued that the "universal service fund" used to
subsidize rural carriers - which the large telcos always scream about -
is legitimate, because when we pick up the phone and "dial," we're
paying for the ability to reach people, not just empty dial-tone. This
is also legitimate, and by this argument, Verizon should be paying to
improve service out to Netflix.
Either way, if one is a customer of both, one will end up paying for the
infrastructure - it's more about gorillas fighting, which bill it shows
up on, who ends up pocketing more of the profits, and how many negative
side-effects result.
Methinks all of the arguments and finger-pointing need to be recognized
as being mostly posturing for position.
Miles Fidelman
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
