> imagine the plight of smaller services today and in the future.
This is flat out a lie, smaller services uses CDNs.
> This is flat out a lie, smaller services uses CDNs.
The reason Netflix is targeted here is not because they aren't using CDNs. It's because it's the first popular service that could easily be blackmailed in this way. The end result is that Netflix's cost have gone up in order to get access to the same 10Mbits/sec that their customer has already paid for. Those costs will be borne by Netflix (and its customers) and the ISP has effectively double-charged. Don't kid yourself by thinking the ISP won't turn that into a regular practice for any company that is successfully reaching its customers with a latency/bandwidth-sensitive service.
This is the crux. Remember when ATT started charging for receiving text messages as well as sending them?
Large network owners agree to peer without charges when it is mutually beneficial. That usually boils down to whether the traffic exchanged between the two networks will be roughly balanced and managed reliably.
One of the issue here is that Netflix doesn't operate an Internet backbone. Therefore, ISPs can't use Netflix's network to exchange traffic across the wider Internet. So this leaves the ISPs two choices here:
1) Agree to a free peering agreement with Netflix and build more capacity in their network at the ISP's expense to support Netflix's egress traffic; 2) Request Netflix to sign a paid peering agreement to support the construction and maintenance of the needed extra network capacity.
ISPs who opt for the first choice believe that improving their access to Netflix will make their customers happy and thus allow them grow their business. The other ISPs who opt for the latter choice believe, on the other hands, don't see the free peering as an investment; they want rather to extract more money from their existing customers. So, it is not that surprising to see the incumbent ISPs, who have locked-in their users already and killed-off most of the competition, going against free peering.
That said, I just can't wait to see Google Fiber kick the behinds of these greedy fools.
They have a third choice, which is "not reach Netflix at all". Which, for ISPs that are also selling streaming video services (e.g., pretty much all of the big ISPs, which tend also to be digital cable with "on demand" video streaming providers) with which Netflix competes, is a pretty attractive option.
> That said, I just can't wait to see Google Fiber kick the behinds of these greedy fools.
Hear hear.
Is that a statement that you agree with?
Regardless of whether Netflix is portraying the situation with some bias(on their own blog who would have thought) this is in important issue that should get attention.