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Level 3 Shaken Down By Comcast Over Video Streaming
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like the gloves are really coming off; Level 3 Communications had to pony up an undisclosed amount of cash to keep Netflix streaming to Comcast customers. Perhaps now the FCC might actually do something to ensure that the internet remains open. Level 3's Chief Legal Officer, Thomas Stortz, said: 'Level 3 believes Comcast's current position violates the spirit and letter of the FCC's proposed Internet Policy principles and other regulations and statutes, as well as Comcast's previous public statements about favoring an open Internet. While the network neutrality debate in Washington has focused on what actions a broadband access provider might take to filter, prioritize or manage content requested by its subscribers, Comcast's decision goes well beyond this. With this action, Comcast is preventing competing content from ever being delivered to Comcast's subscribers at all, unless Comcast's unilaterally-determined toll is paid — even though Comcast's subscribers requested the content. With this action, Comcast demonstrates the risk of a 'closed' Internet, where a retail broadband Internet access provider decides whether and how their subscribers interact with content.'"
You are no longer my ISP.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Yet another showing by Comcast as to how the net shall lose it's neutrality in the coming years. Between the major ISP's, MPAA, RIAA, DHS and ICANN, we're going to be hosed. Had problems with these asshats for years now. Apparently either myself or my roommate downloaded something Comcast didn't like and now we are restricted to a maximum of 35MB per download, anything beyond that and Comcast decreases our bandwidth. They will not admit it to us though.
Considering that Comcast posted a net income of over 3.5 billion last year I think asking them to reinforce their infrastructure so they can be competitive is not outside the realm of being reasonable.
Comcast sucks. Most of the HD content is very repetitive. I don't watch much tv.. except for Big Bang Theory, Fringe, and a couple of other shows. I wok out after supper now. Also I've gota few home projects I'm working on. So I stripped my Comcast account to be Internet and basic cable. .. they weren'y happy.. I went from $125.00/month to $50.00 / month (Internet is next tier up). If they dont' watch it I'll be looking for another way to get service.
Netflix is getting throttled down... I've played a few movies that dropped from HD to SD due to bandwidth throttling. Plus my Vonage service had due to Comcast bandwidth sucking. I live in a rural area.
Comcast says the issue with Level 3 is a peering dispute and says it "offered Level 3 the same terms it offers to Level 3s CDN competitors for the same traffic." The issue seems to be that the Level 3's addition of Netflix as a customer may have altered the balance of the traffic exchange between Level 3 and Comcast. In other words, Comcast says the volume of traffic is the issue, while Level 3 says the type of traffic is the issue.
More like this (from last year):
Customer: Hello ESPN360.com, I can't watch your sports anymore.
ESPN360: We're sorry, but your ISP has not paid for access. Please contact Comcast to complain.
Customer: But the rest of the internet is working fine.
ESPN360: We're sorry, but your ISP has not paid for access. Please contact Comcast to complain.
Customer: Are you even listening to me?
ESPN360: We're sorry, but your ISP has not paid for access. Please contact Comcast to complain.
Customer: (sigh) I guess I need to call Comcast. Or switch to Verizon DSL.
Verizon gained a lot of customers because of this. And now Comcast has caved, and they started paying ESPN360.com for access. Ditto Disneyconnection.com. I suspect after complaints or losing customers, Comcast would cave on netflix.com too
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I have not used the mail service from netflix in 2 years, and I just expanded my account to 3 dvds at a time (because it also allows me 3 devices streaming at a time). Most everyone I know is the same way, and Netflix corroborates my story, because they just now started offering a streaming only service.
Netflix is simply the best legal streaming video service on the internet now, sometimes I forget that they do DVDs at all.
Indeed. When TD Ameritrade lost my information form their database, all they had to pay was a paltry number of free trades and were allowed to settle without admitting any wrongdoing. Which as far as I can tell is largely the status quo. The people actually harmed by the behavior rarely if ever get anything substantial out of it and the company rarely if ever has to pay much.
As far as I can tell that's more or less the status quo.
I second this. I pay ~$35 for my 10/100 Mbit split-speed unlimited broadband fiber connection (my ISP is Bredbandsbolaget), which is not an unreasonable price here in Sweden. And when I say unlimited, I mean no caps what so ever: I torrent *a lot* every month. I always wonder why you people over there in the States pay so much for so crappy connections ...
This obscure reference just went over 99% of Americans' government-educated heads.
"Danegeld" refers to the gold paid by the English monarchy to stop the Danish and Norway Vikings from raiding towns along the east coast of Britannia. I forget the exact date, but somewhere around 800-900 A.D. Many of the Vikings then set-up permanent villages in this area while collecting their tribute.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
As soon as authority gets involved in commerce, the market ceases to be free, and falls prey to regulation and rent-seeking.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Wait, L3 should pay Comcast for the privilege of supplying more of the content Comcast customers want? After paying to increase their own capacity?
No, the net neutrality geeks are right. This is simultaneously leveraging their consumer monopoly and protecting their video business. A competitive ISP without mixed interests wouldn't be pursuing this angle.
Comcast isnt blocking the website but the content distribution networks.
What happens is that the site works fine, but the videos wont play.
But I'm a one-percenter in more ways than one.
You're in a motorcycle gang?
Ceci n'est pas un sig.
That's EXACTLY what it is. Comcast peered with Level 3 and agreed they'd send near-equal amounts of traffic back and forth. Now Level 3 is sending 5 times more than Comcast is sending. So Comcast says the non-paying peering agreement is not working and Level 3 should pay for the unequal traffic.
I suspect Level 3 brought Video and Network Neutrality into this issue to play politics and get on the public's side. It's really just a peering issue.
Please note that our system totally favors a TWO party system. Requirements to get on ballots are written so that only two majors can really field a candidate. Smaller parties are usually co opted to one "line" or the "other". Even Ross Perot found this to be a huge stumbling block. At the end, the Republicrats magnanimously "agreed to waive any challenges" to the Perot candidacy. Both parties realized that this could have morphed into a "why is a third party so hard to do" (and probably figured he'd hurt the other side) conversation so they turned the discussion onto Perot and away from the system. No water for Perot, but he is a great example of a person with the ability and wealth to pose a serious effort. He was "rejected" from the body politic like a bacteria. Meanwhile, your third party candidate won't easily get on any ballot here in NY, and I'm sure that applies not only in the EasternUrbanIntellectualNorthEastVeryBlueState but also in DownHomeMiddleOfTheNationPatrioticVeryRedState too. The lack of a real choice is nationwide. The Tea Party, by nominally siding with the Repub side, missed this huge set of rocks in the river. They may come under that umbrella but if the co opt efforts from the owners of the current R Party don't work, they might be tossed out into the wilderness of election law.
I WANT MOD POINTS, this is exactly how it is. People look, you don't vote because the politician is "bad" (there could be many reasons) but their is a 3rd party you would support. So vote 3rd party, if everyone got off their fucking highhorse these 3rd parties would give them a run a for their money. So start voting, become proactive to those who don't vote and make sure they understand that it is worthwhile. Here is a good example, almost 70% of the population of the US didn't vote in the last election cycle. Trust me that 70% could CRUSH any other candidate.
WTF Slashdot, why do I have to login 50 times to post?
Which ignores the fact that Comcast provides asymmetrical connections to 95%+ (100%?) of their customers. Perhaps not coincidentally, the downstream to upstream ratio is 5:1 (at least mine is).
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere