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Apple Reportedly In Talks With Comcast For Separate Apple Streaming Path

Posted by samzenpus on from the fast-lane dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Apple is reportedly in talks with Comcast to obtain a network pathway dedicated to live and on-demand programming for subscribers of unspecified Apple services. In other words, Apple traffic would be separated from the rest of the public's internet traffic. This deal is different from the one Netflix made with Comcast in that Apple is reportedly asking for separate traffic in the path from Comcast facilities to consumer homes; the Netflix deal only gains Netflix direct access to the Comcast network. While net neutrality rules no longer restrict ISPs from monetizing their traffic prioritization, Comcast is still bound in that respect until 2018 as part of the conditions for its acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011."

8 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. S C U M B A G S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is how the internet dies : Toll roads.

    1. Re:S C U M B A G S by Nexus7 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or, it could mean that municipalities, Google, and others who view internet access as an utility, have 7 years to get their act together.

  2. Rent-seeking? by SkunkPussy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The floodgate of pay to play has been unleashed.

    --
    SURELY NOT!!!!!
    1. Re:Rent-seeking? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      These are two of the most evil companies of the face of the Earth. Apple, because, well, Steve Jobs. And Comcast gouges everyone that depends on them for internet services.

    2. Re:Rent-seeking? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It will be interesting to see if Apple are forced to charge a higher price because of this. If not it would look like monopoly abuse, using their dominant position to cut margins to levels others couldn't sustain and paying for exclusive access to customers.

      It does seem rather un-Apple like though. Normally they just tell service providers they should be privileged to have Apple products on their network and must provide a minimum level of service to them, like the did with the iPhone. Maybe it's due to Jobs not being around any more, maybe Comcast learned from the mobile carrier's mistakes.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Rent-seeking? by Revek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They have the cable tv mentality. I work for a small cable company and I can assure you that the ultimate goal is to leverage the small guys out of business. Tell me one large company in this country that isn't set up like a despots dream. Its funny how america is about democracy on the surface but allows non democratic entity to attain the vote in the country.

  3. CDNs do not violate Network Neutrality by ElBeano · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sure we'll see a rush to judgment that these deals are the end of network neutrality, blah, blah. From the outside looking in, we don't really know what added value is being provided to the content providers. Quite possibly, likely in my view, Comcast is providing CDN services to Netflix, and may be doing so for Apple as well. If so, there are benefits all around, in terms of Comcast, Netflix and reducing backbone congestion. A CDN is quite different from a toll road.

  4. We the Customers by bigpat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What is being glossed over when the CEOs come out and say that Netflix and other content providers want a "free ride" is that it isn't Comcast that is paying for this network infrastructure and their customers aren't their property... We the customers are paying for this network infrastructure with our money and we are being told we are getting a level of bandwidth service to the "Internet".

    For CEOs of Comcast and Verizon to demand that Netflix or others raise their prices and pass along those price increases to the customers of Verizon and Comcast if they want to connect to these networks is fundamentally a dishonest argument for fairness since it is the customers of Verizon and Comcast that want to access these Internet services in the first place and it is the Verizon and Comcast customers that are already paying both companies in order to do so.

    It is way past time for government regulation. Either at the state, federal or local level to demand net neutrality. And if localities can't impose net neutrality in their licensing, permit or franchise agreements because the big companies have bought off the Feds again, then municipalities should just put up their own wires.