Verizon Public Policy on Netflix

Sat Jul 12 02:22:52 UTC 2014

On Fri, Jul 11, 2014 at 3:58 PM, Jimmy Hess <mysidia at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 11, 2014 at 5:05 PM, Naslund, Steve <SNaslund at medline.com>
> wrote:
> > Here we go down the rabbit hole again.  This is not difficult.  An
> Internet Service Provider is an entity that provides Internet connectivity
> to its customers for some consideration.
>
> > If you are looking for a legal definition of an ISP you are not going to
> find (a >satisfactory) one.  The FCC does have specific rules that define
> carriers
> >such as ILEC, CLEC, RLEC, and those have definitions.  ISP is really a
> term
> > that describes a line of business.  There is no engineering definition
> of an
> > ISP that is defined by any regulatory body that I am aware of.
>
> Correct.  "ISP" is  not a specific technology or business.    It is
> based on what is being sold.
> You can be selling customers a dial-up service where your customers
> are presented with a shell prompt over the dial-in terminal connected
> to a hosted Unix server you are renting with connectivity from a 56K
> leased line, and you are still an ISP.
>
> By common definitions, by the way,  Youtube has been referred to as an
> ISP.   An ISP is a company that  generates revenue by providing
> connectivity to internet resources (in this case:  streaming video).
>
> Usually  ISP is used to refer to providers that are selling complete
> internet connectivity, however,  not organizations that merely run one
> website providing entertainment or e-commerce.
>
> You can subdivide the idea of ISP into  various related ideas such as
> "Online Service Provider",   "Network Service Provider",   "Broadband
> Service Provider",  "E-mail service provider",  "Mobile Data
> Provider",  etc
>
> Which are more informative,  but generally equally vague  and informal.
>
> --
> -JH
>
>

*sigh*

Fine, fine, y'all are super-attached to your
business-y definitions of ISP.

I'll clarify my earlier point to eliminate this
confusion.

To the core of the internet, if you do not have
an AS number, you do not exist.  If your business
does not have an AS number *as far as the BGP
speaking core of the internet is concerned, there
is no representation for your entity, no matter
what acronym you attach to it.*

There.  Confusion over.  You can call yourself an
ISP until you're blue in the face, for all the good
it does you; the incontrovertible point I'm making
is that you don't exist as a recognizably separate
entity from your upstream provider from the network
perspective.

Matt