Verizon Public Policy on Netflix

Mon Jul 14 14:03:58 UTC 2014

On Jul 14, 2014, at 9:46 AM, Miles Fidelman <mfidelman at meetinghouse.net> wrote:

> 7. In the absence of some reasonably balanced formal policies and regulations about settlements - we're going to keep seeing this kind of stuff.

I think here is where many of us may disagree.

While the current (public) dispute between Verizon and Netflix is fun for everyone to point fingers at saying "look here, there is a problem", the market also "mostly works".  Verizon and Netflix seem to have reached (per press reports) an agreement and the largest problem today is the lack of ability to turn-up these ports quickly.  Some market players move at light-speed, others at more glacial paces.

I've been paying close attention to this for a variety of reasons.  I've heard stories of some incumbents taking double-digit months to provision these types of services to correct congestion.  I'm expecting the resolution time-scale to be much longer than was seen with the Comcast <-> Netflix connections.  

it would not surprise me if it took 18 months to provision these ports.

(I recall phoning AT&T once asking for 100m service at a commercial address and it took a swat-team of people on the phone to tell me they would be 4x/mo what I was paying..  I politely told them they were too expensive and to not schedule a 8 person conference call for a basic service level).

- Jared