Observations of an Internet Middleman / RIP Network Neutrality

Thu May 15 18:41:59 UTC 2014

> Yes, you've got "some of the largest Internet companies as customers².
> Because you told them "if you don't pay us, we'll throttle you".  Then
> you throttled them.  I'm sorry, not a winning argument.
> Nick

Claims by some large ISPs that this is “untrue” rest on the claim that they don’t do traffic discrimination.

While they may not be (and, indeed, are not allowed to) do traffic discrimination, what is ignored is that refusing to add sufficient peering capacity is, to the consumer’s perspective (and to the content provider’s perspective as well) effectively the same thing as throttling.

I will note that as yet, not one of these providers has claimed that they did not refuse to increase peering capacity in order to leverage payment, and, indeed, payment does appear to have been leveraged.

Owen