[opendtv] Verizon: Interconnection is Not Net Neutrality Issue | Multichannel
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 12:55:25 -0500
http://www.multichannel.com/news/fcc/verizon-interconnection-not-net-neutrality-issue/386390
Verizon: Interconnection is Not Net Neutrality Issue
Verizon told the FCC in a filing Wednesday (Dec. 17) that it needs to keep the
issue of interconnection and traffic exchange among networks separate from the
open Internet proceedings and that, in any event, it cannot apply Title II regs
to interconnection, as some have proposed.
One proposed hybrid Sec. 706/Title II proposal suggests applying net neutrality
regs to interconnection agreements between broadband networks including to
last-mile networks.
Verizon calls that "misplaced and wrong." It points out, as have others, that
the FCC itself has historically deemed those interconnection agreements
distinct from network neutrality. It also says those agreements are
"quintessentially private carriage agreements and cannot be regulated as common
carriage.
Netflix for one has argued that commercially negotiated paid peering
arrangements should be part of the network neutrality order because they allow
ISPs to move discrimination from the last mile to points of network
interconnection. "Strong net neutrality additionally prevents ISPs from
charging a toll for interconnection to services like Netflix, YouTube, or
Skype, or intermediaries such as Cogent, Akamai or Level 3," the company has
blogged and told the FCC in comments on the Open Internet order.
Verizon says that net neutrality remains a last-mile issue, and that
interconnection agreements are individualized responses to the business models
of some content providers, like Netflix, which "have consumed an increasingly
large share of Internet traffic."
Verizon told the FCC that regulating interconnection agreements, "would only
cripple this flexible, market-based dynamic that has played a key role in the
explosive growth of the Internet."
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has given some indications that a Title II regime is
workable, and he is on the record as saying the FCC needs to address
interconnection. But he has also said that interconnection is a separate issue
from net neutrality.
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