[kictanet] [ISOC_KE] Fwd: Who should Pay for Netflix?

McTim dogwallah at gmail.com
Mon Mar 24 13:53:46 EAT 2014


On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 2:19 AM, Ngigi Waithaka <ngigi at at.co.ke> wrote:

> I am not very familiar with the infrastructure side of things, but from
> his blog post countering Netflix's argument is does make quite some sense.
>
> I guess what the ISPs are saying, we can only afford this much bandwidth
>


Yes, that is what they are saying...but it is an untruth.




> , which to a lot of users is fine, unless, you are watching Netflix
> movies, in which case you would need your bandwidth at double or triple the
> existing connection speeds.
>
> What the ISPs should do is make those consumers asking for Bandwidth
> guarantees to pay extra for those services, and then pass on those costs.
>



the bandwidth in question is NOT the end users bandwidth, in other words,
it's not in the last mile, it is in the "middle mile" at the point where
the ISPs (who Netflix pay already to deliver their content) meet the
consumers ISP.  This connection happens at peering points like KIXP.
 Comcast throttled netflix at these peering points by NOT adding more ports
to allow for the greater bandwidth that is caused the the demand FROM
comcast subscribers.   Netflix is NOT consuming bandwidth, the customers of
Comcast are using this bandwidth, which, of course, they have already paid
for !!


To make an analogy, it would be like a matatu or bus company charging you
for transport, then also trying to charge your employer for getting you to
your job.





> They have always done that, only this time, they are charging the
> originator of the content to charge his customers on their behalf.
>


The "originator of the content", which I assume you mean Netflix, already
pays their ISP to deliver this content.  In the "best effort" Internet
model we have had for the last 3 decades, the customer only pays one time
to send and receive content.  This breaks that model.


-- 
Cheers,

McTim
"A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route
indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel
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