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from the so-much-for-fighting-the-good-fight dept.
c0lo writes:
"Many news outlets announced that Netflix agreed to pay Comcast for smoother network access.
The deal, which has been nearly a year in the making, would give Netflix direct access to Comcast's high-speed network, the two companies confirmed Sunday.
Under this new deal, Netflix will access Comcast's network directly or, almost directly, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news this afternoon. 'Under the deal, Netflix won't be able to place its servers inside Comcast's data centers, which Netflix had wanted,' the paper explains. 'Instead, Comcast will connect to Netflix's servers at data centers operated by other companies.'
The agreement is a surprise because Netflix could have used the issue as leverage while Comcast attempts to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc., an industry researcher said. 'I would have thought Netflix would have held out with the Time Warner Cable deal looming,' Craig Moffett, founder of research firm MoffettNathanson LLC, said in an interview. 'Netflix can ask for whatever it wants and has a reasonable shot at getting conditions put on the merger that could provide it with long-term benefit. On the other hand, that could be precisely what spurred this deal that Comcast was willing to settle with Netflix for a relatively low price to make the Netflix problem go away ahead of the regulatory review.'"
(Score: 2, Informative) by bah on Monday February 24 2014, @08:17PM
Yeah, this has nothing to do with Net Neutrality. This has to do with Cogent being Netflix's ISP and cogent having limited bandwidth to peer networks. To avoid that problem, Netflix has servers directly connected to other major ISPs.
(Score: 5, Informative) by dmc on Monday February 24 2014, @09:28PM
That is not strictly true. While perhaps based on what I've read so far, it may be in some sense technically true, even if that is the case, it seems to be a split-hair away from not being true. Let me quote some from the FCC-10-201 Net Neutrality Document [fcc.gov]
page-11 "
The record in this proceeding reveals that broadband providers potentially face at least three types of incentives to reduce the current openness of the Internet. First, broadband providers may have economic incentives to block or otherwise disadvantage specific edge providers or classes of edge providers, for example by controlling the transmission of network traffic over a broadband connection, including the price and quality of access to end users. A broadband provider might use this power to benefit its own or affiliated offerings at the expense of unaffiliated offerings.46
"
page-15 "
24.
Second, broadband providers may have incentives to increase revenues by charging edge providers, who already pay for their own connections to the Internet,62 for access or prioritized access to end users.63 Although broadband providers have not historically imposed such fees, they have argued they should be permitted to do so.64 A broadband provider could force edge providers to pay inefficiently high fees because that broadband provider is typically an edge provider's only option for reaching a particular end user.65 Thus broadband providers have the ability to act as gatekeepers.66
"
So while maybe some lawyers might agree with your assessment, I think it is disengenous outside of a court to make as bold a statement as you did about the situation.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Monday February 24 2014, @10:31PM
I'm glad you cleared that up...
Do YOU see ALL home-page stories?
dev.soylentnews.org/search.pl?tid=1
github.com/SoylentNews/slashcode/issues/78
(Score: 5, Informative) by dmc on Monday February 24 2014, @10:35PM
I wish I could say I'm glad you didn't find something more useful to discuss about my comment than that.
Upon further consideration, I'll be happy to recant the preface of my informative comment and instead say-
Of course this has to do with network neutrality. The fact that the public has no transparency into the deal as far as what amount of money Netflix paid for precisely what access, is exactly why the transparency rule was central to Network Neutrality.
Happy now? :)
(Score: 1) by forsythe on Monday February 24 2014, @11:15PM
I was under the impression that this deal was, in large, brought about by Comcast imposing new bandwidth caps on Netflix, and that such action would be directly against Net Neutrality. So there is a problem unrelated to Net Neutrality (the one you stated), a solution to that problem is being implemented, and this story discusses that solution, but that problem is not (significantly) causing the symptom "Netflix is slow". This symptom will, in all probability, vanish at about the same time the solution is implemented, however.
If I'm mistaken, why did "Netflix is slow" only recently show up? Did Netflix's growth finally overwhelm Cogent's bandwidth, or something like that?