Comcast has begun imposing a fee on Internet middleman Level 3 Communications, one of the companies that Netflix has hired to deliver movies and TV shows to Web customers.
Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV company, has set up an Internet “toll booth,” charging Level 3 whenever customers request content, the Broomfield, Colorado-based company said in a statement yesterday.
Level 3 plans to complain to U.S. regulators who may enact so-called net-neutrality rules next month. The Federal Communications Commission is seeking to bar phone and cable providers from interfering with legal traffic on their networks. The rules are backed by President Barack Obama and companies led by Google, EBay and IAC/InterActiveCorp. Phone and cable companies say rules aren’t needed and may hurt investment.
“This action by Comcast threatens the open Internet and is a clear abuse of the dominant control that Comcast exerts in broadband access,” Thomas Stortz, Level 3’s chief legal officer, said in the statement. “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.”
Comcast, which is seeking regulatory approval to acquire majority ownership of NBC Universal, defended the fee in a statement, saying it is based on “long established and mutually acceptable commercial arrangements” with Level 3’s peers…
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, in proposing net neutrality rules last year, called for a principle of non- discrimination by Internet-service providers. The FCC will meet on Dec. 21.
“This means they cannot block or degrade lawful traffic over their networks,” Genachowski said.
If you don’t pay the toll, your traffic doesn’t go through – or Comcast will slow it down enough to make it unwatchable.
#19, except its not free enterprise at all. Comcast was given monopolies by the government. A free enterprise, i.e. Capitalistic approach would be if anyone was allowed to come into say.. New York, lay their own cables down, and start providing internet. Try that in New York, and see how far you get.
Personally my belief is to have the least amount of government as possible. However, this problem was caused by government to begin with. How about this:
In areas where comcast has been given a monopoly to provide cable by the locality or state, they are required to adhere to net neutrality restrictions (all data treated equally, ect).
However in an area where they have not been given a monopoly on cable (which is nowhere) they will be allowed to put whatever toll both they want on their lines.
I used to live in an area where Comcrap was in a 2 cable provider area. I used WOW, but just because they had better support. They were priced about the same as ComCrap.
I am now in a ComCrap only service area. It took them 2 weeks and 5 service visits to figure out how to install a cable card in my TIVO. Actually, I called TIVO and told their Techs what the problem was, and it still took them 4 hours to fix it. Ever since then many of my basic channels (NBC, FOX, and Comedy Central) have been dropping out. 3 service calls and it still aint fixed.
Comcraps service is horrible.
Oh yea, my Netflix streaming has been much worse on the Comcast network than on the WOW network also. I think they are intentionally f***ing with the Netflix streams, but I don’t have a way to prove it.
Don
In the interest of providing fair and balanced reporting, and public representation, I will now make an observation that, if this article were on general public display, you would most definitely hear.
OMG, do you see how fat that fuckin’ cat is?!!
We now continue with our regularly scheduled discussion.
all bits are created equal. if this continues and gets laws formed around it to support comcast, the internet as we know it is dead. what will they throttle next? pandora? porn? youtube? streaming podcasts? comcast is just mad that people are using netflix instead of watching shit on their crappy service. things like this really scare me. i seriously think the internet as we know it is going to vanish one day very very soon….
want to know when the republicans will react? when the comcast/nbc merger is complete, and you then see comcast pulling the plug on fox news as well as interfering with the on-line streams of fox news, rush, hannity, and the other right wingers. not until then. once they lose access to the masses, they will then pass net neutrality. not a moment before.
The way this works is that Comcast opposes having it’s own subscribers viewing Netflix. Comcast does the ‘final mile’ delivery of whatever the subscriber to it’s services requests, Comcast does not carry download data to people that do not subscribe to it’s services. If you don’t use Comcast, you probably never touch the Comcast network.
So essentially Comcast is saying “We want to penalize our own subscribers for choosing Netflix by making Netflix cost more.”
Netflix is actually carried by “Level-3″, and in January Level-3 is deploying multiple datacenters containing full copies of the entire 20,000 Netflix movie catalog so that streaming will happen much more locally. Comcast subscribers will pull their Netflix from the Level-3 systems, because they choose to watch Netflix. Comcast NEVER carries Netflix for people that do not subscribe to Comcast, so the bandwidth is entirely being paid by what that suscriber of Comcast is requesting. Netflix is not imposing free carriage at all, since it does not use Comcast bandwidth that Comcast subscribers are not requesting directly as part of their service.
In summary, Comcast wants to make it more expensive for their subscribers to use non-Comcast services. They could make their services cheaper or more comprehensive to actually compete with Netflix, but as a de-facto monopoly they would rather just charge as much as possible and impede competition.
If you do not support “Net-Neutrality”, then you are saying “I want Netflix to become pay-per-view on Comcast” with the extra money going to Comcast for the privilege of having access to your Netflix subscription.
Its amazing how gullible the right wing sheep are in their opposition to “net neutrality”. The GOP sells “net neutrality” as being the internet version of the “fairness doctrine”, thus getting overwhelming opposition.
But the exact opposite is true.
Net neutrality is about protecting free speech and letting the market dictate what gets popular, not having the corporate oligarchy dictate what you are supposed to be accessing.
I agree with #1 however I’m being charged for high speed DSL that was sold to me on the grounds it was what I need to download video.
Charging the agent I’m downloading again seems to be less than fair especially when I’m going to end up picking up the tab again.
If this article is correct, then Comcast might be less evil.
http://digitalsociety.org/2010/11/level-3-outbid-akamai-on-netflix-by-reselling-stolen-bandwidth/
Wait, shouldn’t Level 3 be charging Comcast for the privilege of Comcast’s customers having access the its data? One of these two is a destination and the other is not.
Oh, now I get the “Fat Cat” picture/joke. Anyway.
What the Internet sorely needs is a Bill of Rights, like in the US Constitution. Limiting just what any commercial entity or service provider, can do with it. Spelling out specifically how providers are allowed to profit from the Internet, and no other way. This adding of their own content offerings, obviously was bound to put them in conflict with all other similar content providers. Connectivity providers ought NOT be in the content or product selling business. Suppose Comcast decided to sell books and DVDs next. Would it also be fair of them to toll charge Amazon.com for selling via their servers? What if a viewing region’s Tv station got bought up by Toyota. Would it be fair of them to charge Ford, GM, Nissan, and Chrysler more to advertise their cars on these stations? What if a certain US State charge a toll for certain makes of cars to travel on their roads, but gave a “free ride” to one made in that State? What if your cell phone carrier charged you more to talk to your friends, who’s phones were on a competing carrier? Would that be fair too? Obviously, none of these hypothetical abuses have been allowed to happen. Yet. It’s only been allowed to happen on the internet, because the US Congress just doesn’t “GET IT”. But they do “GET” lobbying and bribery. So they’ve failed to do what’s right in the general public’s interest. And looked out mainly for special interests.
Last time I checked, the air waves and internet systems, weren’t owned by any one commercial entity. They only have a license to operate as if they do. And extorting fees and surcharges, for use by potential competing businesses, should never be a part of what the carriers are licensed to do. And the FCC has gotten extremely weak and fuzzy on policing and preventing ecommerce monopolization.
If Leo Laporte is the President of the Internet, like a kind of John Hancock of Philadelphia’s early US Congress. Then he ought to recruit some of his colleges in various vanes of eCommerce and eMedia, to come up with a Internet Bill of Rights (“I-BoR”). I should a small group of internet founding eFathers, he knows and trusts, could come up with something inspiring enough for even the jaded US Congress to seriously consider, as a model for their muddled version, yet to come.
If Jimmy Kimmel can come up with National Unfriend Day. Certainly some basic Internet Usage Rights and Rules, can be made of some greater benefit, to the whole world.
I don’t trust this government does anything without an agenda against free speech and for corruption.
Whatever they do will give them a foot in the door to do much worse later, while enriching progressive fronts.
I have read than netflix streaming is now 1/2 of all bandwidth use in places. You think they should get that for free while others have spent BILLIONS to build and maintain the network?
How much more investment do you think Comcast needs to make to improve Netflix service?