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Netflix Gets What It Pays For: Comcast Streaming Speeds Skyrocket

Posted by timothy on from the everyone-should-get-the-same-amount-of-water-and-electricty dept.

jfruh (300774) writes "Back in February, after a lengthy dispute, Netflix agreed to pay Comcast for network access after being dogged by complaints of slow speeds from Comcast subscribers. Two months later, it appears that Comcast has delivered on its promises, jumping up six places in Netflix's ISP speed rankings. The question of whether this is good news for anyone but Comcast is still open."

14 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. Seriously by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fuck Comcast

    1. Re:Seriously by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Funny

      I love Comcast. Comcast is awesome. And I don't just say that because they're my only real broadband internet option now, and the only real option now for several cities around me now in fact. I say it because they're great! Doubleplus good they are!

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  2. I Pay by sycodon · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. I Pay Comcast for internet access at X speed.
    2. I Pay Netflix to send me movies via that line that I pay for.
    3. Comcast holds my content hostage, wanting an extortion payment from NetFlix.

    I see.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:I Pay by _xeno_ · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, not just from Netflix, what they really want is to make the Netflix experience so terrible that you'd rather buy pay-per-view movies from Comcast instead. Barring that, they'll take money from Netflix if they can get that, too.

      Comcast's end game is being your only source of content. Internet, TV, movies, music, phone service, all through Comcast and no one else. If they have to break Netflix and Skype to do that - "oops." After all, net neutrality is currently unenforceable in the United States.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
    2. Re:I Pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I've set up a VPS to access netflix through my comcast connection, but it doesn't allow comcast's throttling. My video quality has much improved. This anecdotally proves to me comcast is manipulating netflix's traffic.

    3. Re:I Pay by cheesybagel · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is worse than net neutrality. IMO it violates the Sherman antitrust act.

    4. Re:I Pay by Warbothong · · Score: 5, Informative

      1. You pay Comcast for Internet access at X speed.
      2. Netflix pays Amazon and others for Internet access at Y speed ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N... )
      3. You pay Netflix to send you movies via those lines that you both pay for.
      4. Comcast holds your content hostage, wanting an extortion payment from NetFlix.

      The point about NetFlix paying for bandwidth is important, since Comcast keep claiming things like "they shouldn't get a free ride" and "somebody needs to pay for the infrastructure", but they *were* paying for infrastructure; just not Comcast's (directly, anyway).

    5. Re:I Pay by Alternate+Interior · · Score: 5, Informative

      Have a local ISP who pipe through Time Warner. Around the end of December, Netflix connections went to crap. Complained and ISP threw Netflix under the bus, saying they've over-saturated their bandwidth. Tried a SOCKS proxy via VPS and magic, works fine. Told ISP and they seemed genuinely amazed.

      Comcast is still the devil- but VPS is a very viable workaround.

      --
      Implicit Evaluation with PHP
  3. that was quick! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it's barely been a month & comcast's already completed all those network upgrades? you know, all that capital investment that was required b/c of netflix that they didn't have the $ for until a month ago? that's impressively fast considering how long it takes them to fix the most basic problems for individual customers!

  4. Consumers pay by pr0nbot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Obviously Netflix will just pass the cost on to its subscribers (where else would they get the money from?). It's very unlikely they'd implement this as a surcharge for their Comcast subscribers only (I wish they would, but I expect their contract with Comcast prohibits it), they'll just absorb it into the single subscription price. So in fact non-Comcast customers will effectively be indirectly paying Comcast to subsidise other users' access.

    From an engineer's point of view it's all baffling (Netflix and their customers are both paying for a certain amount of bandwidth, so where's the need for anything more?), but when you view it through the lens of capitalist incentives it all makes perfect sense.

  5. "The question of whether this is good news..." by Red_Chaos1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "...for anyone but Comcast is still open."

    It was never a question, nor open. The answer is no. It is painfully obvious this benefits Comcast and hurts everyone else.

  6. No... by PortHaven · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What Netflix is paying for, is a bribery fee so that Comcast quit throttling them. The proof?

    As soon as the agreement was reached, I could finally stream Netflix in 3D. Oh, and we all know they didn't get their peering equipment in within 3 days....

  7. Re:Whatever you're smoking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We don't know what NotDrWho meant to post. His access to Slashdot is through Comcast.

  8. Netflix doing this on purpose by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm beginning to wonder if Netflix did this on purpose, to gain sympathy and to highlight the actual problems around net-neutrality.

    It makes sense, instead of making bold claims about what might happen, they went ahead and just let it happen..

    It's sort of like a person going into a bad neighborhood, getting roughed up and then telling everyone about how much of a bad part of town that was, look he's even a victim!

    This chart is easy to show to politicians and policymakers, and it exposes the simple fact that Comcast clearly **had** the capacity before these payments, they were just withholding.

    Personally, I think it's a very smart move on Netflix's part, they are playing the long game.