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Comcast CEO Brian Roberts Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot
lpress (707742) writes "At a recent conference, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts rationalized charging Netflix to deliver content by comparing Comcast to the Post Office, saying that Netflix pays to mail DVDs to its customers but now expects to be able to deliver the same content over the internet for free. He forgot to mention that the Post Office does not charge recipients for those DVDs. The underlying issue in this debate is who will invest in the Internet infrastructure that we badly need? Comcast has a disincentive to invest because, if things bog down, people will blame content providers like Netflix and the ISP will be able to charge the content provider for adequate service. If ISPs have insufficient incentive to invest in infrastructure, who will? Google? Telephone companies? Government (at all levels)? Premises owners?"
No, not unless you would like your Internet access technologies refreshed and upgraded about as often as your water pipes or electric lines are. Which is to say approximately never.
The story is "slow news day" Slashdot click bait (see also Snowden, Assange, Android vs. iOS fanboy wars) that has been hashed and re-hashed endlessly. Some people think Comcast is right not to give free peering bandwidth to non-peers like Level3 and Netflix. Other people think it is incumbent upon Comcast to give free peering to Netflix or Level3 anyway because it will improve the experience of their paying subscribers. Both sides argue vociferously and neither convinces the other of anything. Move along, nothing to see here.
Your brain cells will thank you for reading just about anything else on the Internet, with the exception of foxnews.com or pitchfork media.
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