Multicast Traffic on Backbones

Fri Jun 15 23:26:52 UTC 2001

David Schwartz wrote:
> John Olp wrote:
>> 
>> The argument that multicast should be billed based on the number of
>> receivers is flawed.  Those receivers are already being billed
>> based on the bandwidth they use regardless of source.
> 
> They are billed by their ISP for the traffic they receive. This
> doesn't cover the cost of sending the data to them on the sourcing
> ISP. This is why you pay for both traffic you send and for traffic
> you receive. Both cost your provider money to do for you.

Nice bit of double-billing.

One packet traverses the network, and two people pay for it.

-- David