Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style

Thu Dec 16 06:49:53 UTC 2010

Interesting point. I'd also like to point out that putting the cost on the content providers rather than the network may raise the cost of the content service, but only to those that want that service. In effect, if the transport provider is paying for the bandwidth generated by a content provider, in effect we have another service bundled to all services offered, which increases the cost to people using Internet service but not necessarily accessing that content. Kind of the same reason TV channels aren't a la carte.

Sincerely,

Brian A . Rettke
RHCT, CCDP, CCNP, CCIP
Network Engineer, CableONE Internet Services

-----Original Message-----
From: George Bonser [mailto:gbonser at seven.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 11:41 PM
To: JC Dill; NANOG list
Subject: RE: Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style

> From: JC Dill
> Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 10:20 PM
> To: NANOG list
> Subject: Re: Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style
>
>
>   On 15/12/10 10:05 PM, George Bonser wrote:
> >
> > If the customer pays the cost of the transport, a provider with
> better
> > transport efficiency / quality ratio wins.
>
>
> This (and everything that followed) assumes the customer has a choice
> of
> providers.  For most customers who already have Comcast, they don't
> have
> any choice for similar broadband services (speeds).  So open market
> principles don't come into play, and Comcast knows it.

No, you misunderstood.  It doesn't matter if you have only one internet
service provider.  If the end customer foots the bill, the incentive for
innovation is for the *content* provider to strike a balance between
quality and cost that the customers want.  If the *content* provider
foots the bill, innovation is driven in a way that the content providers
want.

Lets say I have foo.com and bar.com that offer video services and I am
on Comcast.  If Comcast meters my bandwidth usage and foo.com has good
quality with a lower bandwidth use, I use foo.  In the other model, if
the content providers subsidize the bill, bar.com might be completely
bloated but they have deep pockets and can pay the subsidy, they drive
foo.com out of business and Comcast still has a congested network.