Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style

Thu Dec 16 17:12:11 UTC 2010

On 12/16/2010 7:47 AM, Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Dec 2010 19:05:26 CST, Jack Bates said:
>
>> request financing? ie, Comcast could run lower rates and offer better
>> service by charging the content provider, while competitive eyeball
>> networks won't get the option to receive compensation from content
>> providers and have to charge appropriate rates to their customers.
>
> Yes, Comcast *could* do that. But let's stick to plausible scenarios, OK?

How is it not plausible for Comcast to undercut competition to take an 
even larger market share (and in doing so, extract more money from 
content providers)? If the competition isn't large enough to force 
subsidization from content providers in the same manner, they will 
slowly lose to the unfair competition.

Add to this, that if every large provider charges content providers, the 
rates will be pushed higher to access that content, yet the benefits 
will not be felt by smaller providers who can't extort the extra income 
and will be forced to run higher rates to their customers. Smaller ISPs 
will be more expensive, even without competition, and if they are in a 
competing market with a larger ISP, they will be that much harder 
pressed to justify their higher costs (you can only push better service 
so far)

Jack