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Netflix Confirms Deal For Access To Verizon's Network
An anonymous reader writes "Netflix [on Monday] confirmed that it has reached a deal to gain itself access to Verizon's network. This deal is similar to the one that Netflix already made with Comcast and should improve streaming video quality for Verizon customers. Readers should note that Netflix is paying Verizon and Comcast only to gain access to its networks by by-passing third-party transit providers like Cogent and Level 3. If the FCC's new proposal passes, ISPs like Verizon and Comcast could also charge Netflix for faster direct connections to its customers over the last mile."
Have you ever lived anywhere else? The US is the best thing going, dude. I speaks from experience.
If the FCC's new proposal passes, ISPs like Verizon and Comcast could also charge Netflix for faster direct connections to its customers over the last mile."
So the ISPs would be able to charge their customers for access (which is often tiered), companies like Netflix for access and then companies like Netflix AGAIN for faster access. The go to excuse that they use is that they're infrastructure can't support giving everyone everything, but they took billions from the government to build out infrastructure and then never did it. Oh, I guess that makes it quadruple dipping?
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
As a customer, where is my rate cut?
Monopolies aside, a great problem with the proposed changes is that ISPs can charge whatever they want for connection fees and don't have to disclose. That allows them to shut out anyone they desire. Way too much power.
Sadly, a customer class action suit might be the only chance for Net Neutrality.
What's that I smell?
In this case, it's garbage. i live in the UK, and I had five different options for providers for my Internet connection. If one was throttling my connection, I'd go elsewhere. The only reason Verizon and Comcast get away with this is because they have a cosy little cartel, and together hold Netflix to ransom.
"Is the Chief Priest an Offlian? Do dragons explode in the wood?"
The fact that Slashdot is treating this as news seems to be confusing some people. Netflix just bought bandwidth from Verizon service, just like a million other people do. You pay for your connection, Netflix pays for theirs.
As the summary mentions, but apparently not clearly enough, this has nothing whatsoever to do with net neutrality. Netflix was getting a connection from Cogent (like I do). Now they are getting a connection from Verizon.
Since they use a lot of bandwidth to alot of places, they buy connections from several ISPs, again just like I do, and everyone else who runs popular web sites. That's how it's done and how it's always been done. The only thing new is that Netflix is whining about paying their bills.
This seems to be nothing more than a peering agreement between Netflix Network and Verizon Network. And as usual, if the flow of data is not roughly symmetric, money is flowing the opposite way.
Although I think that if one of the networks isn't a transport network but a content providers own network, the usual term is "multihoming"
bickerdyke
Umm, no. It's way more expensive to run miles of fibre per customer than yards of fibre per customer. Small areas are always cheaper to do than large areas.
Note that one key element of cost of any service is population density, not population. 6000 people within a miles of each other is cheaper and easier to provide service to than 6000 people within 100 miles of each other.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
This is no threat to neutrality. This isn't even a neutrality issue. The carriers WERE neutral. Everyone else's traffic got the same shitty treatment, or good treatment if that was the case. But all traffic was treated equally and that is the goal of neutrality. However, peering relationships typically allow your traffic to pass if you allow my traffic to pass. But any carrier of Netflix is going to cause an imbalance and Netflix's PR wing decided to conflate the issue into one of neutrality, which is rather clever on their part. But you would be wrong to listen to them, and most of the media. Net neutrality is a laudable goal, but the core of this Netflix bru-ha-ha isn't a neutrality issue.
"He's using a quantum encryption scheme! That'll take hours to break!"
And the cost of doing this will be passed down to the consumer. Netflix confirmed that it will be raising its prices for streaming customers by 1 to 2 dollars for new customers only (depending on country). I can only imagine once this trial balloon proves viable, the rate increase will be for existing customers too. Obviously they don't want to lose existing customers now, hence the hold off. Also, a price increase is due thanks to inflation; so there is always that.
Life is not for the lazy.
Note that one key element of cost of any service is population density, not population.
So what's the excuse for high prices and slow speeds in places such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, etc? Those would certainly qualify as population dense.
The fact of the matter is the FCC, just like Congress and local governments, has been bribed to allow near monopolies to exist rather than enforcing existing laws regarding competition. As a result the U.S. continues to fall further and further behind the rest of the industrialized world in broadband penetration, speed and obviously, price.
Currently we are ranked lower than places in the former Soviet Union for both speed and price, and well behind places such as Taiwan and Hong Kong. You can keep using the excuse of population density and large land area, but the reality of the situation is we have only 3 (maybe 4) providers in this country who have tacitly agreed not to compete with each other, the end result being what we have now: low speeds for high prices.
Link one for reference
Link two for reference
Link three for reference
Note that all of the above links are from November-December of 2013, less than six months ago so the information is up to date.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
What's that I smell?
In this case, it's garbage. i live in the UK, and I had five different options for providers for my Internet connection. If one was throttling my connection, I'd go elsewhere. The only reason Verizon and Comcast get away with this is because they have a cosy little cartel, and together hold Netflix to ransom.
And how's the competition in broadcast television providers working out for you?
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
This argument is 50% true / 50% bullshit. If you carveout a slice of our fine nation from Boston to DC, you get a population density of about 930 people per square mile. Granted, this isn't by any means close to the whole country, but it is very dense as european nation size land masses go. It provides 1/5th of our GDP, 17% of our population and only 2% of our landmass (about 76Kmiles square). This part of the nation has horrible internet access relative to similarly wealthy and dense nations that didn't subsidise while deregulating telecoms. It is also less compeditive, with fewer entrants, and more expensive for similar teir of service. Perhaps instead of giving the telco's more control over their network we should, idk, what are the successful nations doing. Let's copy them.
NYC is fairly fast. time warner's slow speeds are 15/1. FIOS is 15/5
time warner is upgrading their network here and my 15/1 will go up to 50/5 some time this year with no extra cost
the low average speed is people out in rural areas who can't get high speeds. they move out there and then complain why no one wants to spend $50,000 to run fiber to their home for $50 a month in revenue
Verizon subscribers, you just became the product.
This sets an unfortunate precedent. I can't really blame Netflix for wanting to keep their business going but this is going to open the floodgates.
When Netflix pays their hosting bill, like every other web site does, the benefit to consumers is that they can watch Netflix. Netflix was trying to be the only web site in the world who doesn't pay their bandwidth bill, without having their service cut off for nonpayment.
Initially, Netflix tried what a lot of new webmasters try - buying bandwidth from the cheapest, crappiest provider there us, Cogent. Cogent IS cheap. They are cheap because they don't consistently deliver the bandwidth they promise, and what they promise is low quality (high jitter, medium-high latency). Like most people running web sites, Netflix has discovered that if you want high quality, reliable bandwidth, you need to get it from someone other than Cogent.
Now Netflix is doing what we, and most successful web sites, have always done - buy bandwidth from other companies as well Cogent. You set up your routers to use Cogent when their connection to the destination happens to be good at the moment. If Cogent isn't fast to that destination at the moment, you route the packets via a better, more expensive provider.