[opendtv] Netflix, AT&T Trade Punches Over Paid Peering | Multichannel
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 06:46:03 -0400
http://www.multichannel.com/netflix-att-trade-punches-over-paid-peering/375098
Netflix, AT&T Trade Punches Over Paid Peering
Netflix and AT&T sparred over paid peering Wednesday at an Aspen Institute
panel session on network neutrality.
Chris Libertelli, VP of global government relations at Netflix, told the
Washington audience that if ISPs are allowed to start levying "access charges"
on Internet traffic, it will attract new regulations and could lead to a
retrans-style regime of payments for carriage.
Libertelli echoed complaints that Comcast had congested its "pathways" in order
to charge Netflix and others. Netflix and Comcast struck a paid peering deal,
but Netflix has complained it was a shotgun marriage.
AT&T senior executive VP James Cicconi countered that paying for traffic
exchanges was the way the Internet was built, that Netflix has always paid, and
that he understood why Netflix would want to try to get something for free that
they had previously paid for. But he said that you can't take that customary
relationship, re-label the payments access charges--he said they are not access
charges--and make it into something new and threatening.
Comcast exec Sena Fitzmaurice was in the audience and had this response to
Netflix's charge: “The only company who decides how Netflix traffic is deliver
to us is Netflix. They choose the path the traffic takes to us. They can choose
to avoid congestion or inflict it. As we’ve noted before, how Netflix routes
its own traffic is all about improving their business model. Independent
commenters have pointed out that Netflix commercial transit decisions created
these issues.”
Netflix argues that paid priority is a network neutrality issues, suggesting
that it moves the discrimination issue from the last mile to network traffic
relationships.
Professor Tim Wu of Columbia Law, who coined the term network neutrality
pointed out that most peering arrangements are not for money and that he, too,
was concerned about the retrans/cable-ization model of paid carriage deals
becoming the norm. He also said there was a difference when talking about ISP's
with control of, say, 20 million customers, who had in effect "termination
point" monopolies of those customers.
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- » [opendtv] Netflix, AT&T Trade Punches Over Paid Peering | Multichannel - Craig Birkmaier
