Re: Verizon Public Policy on Netflix

[Miles Fidelman <mfidelman () meetinghouse net>]

Jimmy Hess wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 8:12 PM, Miles Fidelman
> <mfidelman () meetinghouse net> wrote:
> > Randy Bush wrote:
> [snip]
> > At the ISPs expense, including connectivity to a peering point. Most content
> > providers pay Akamai, Netflix wants ISPs to pay them. Hmmm....
> Netflix own website indicates otherwise.
> https://www.netflix.com/openconnect
>
> "ISPs can directly connect their networks to Open Connect for free.
> ISPs can do this either by free peering with us at common Internet
> exchanges, or can save even more transit costs by putting our free
> storage appliances in or near their network."
From another list, I think this puts it nicely (for those of you who 
don't know Brett, he's been running a small ISP for years 
http://www.lariat.net/)

--------

At 02:42 PM 7/10/2014, Jay Ashworth wrote:

> Netflix's only fault is being popular.

Alas, as an ISP who cares about his customers, I must say that this is not at all the case.

Netflix generates huge amounts of wasteful, redundant traffic and then refuses to allow ISPs to correct this inefficiency via caching. It fails to provide 
adequate bandwidth for its traffic to ISPs' "front doors" and then blames their downstream networks when in fact they are more than 
adequate. It exercises market power over ISPs (one of the first questions asked by every customer who calls us is, "How well do you stream 
Netflix?") in an attempt to force them to host their servers for free and to build out network connections for which it should be footing the bill. 
(Netflix told us that, if we wanted to improve streaming performance, we should pay $10,000 per month for a dedicated link, spanning nearly 1,000 miles, 
to one of its "peering points" -- just to serve it and no other streaming provider.) It then launches misleading PR campaigns against ISPs that 
dare to object to this behavior.

We tell prospective customers that we provide a guaranteed amount of capacity for them to the nearest major Internet 
hub. However, because Netflix does not have a presence at that hub, has failed to invest in adequate infrastructure, 
will not build out to our ISP as it has to larger ones such as Comcast, and needlessly wastes network capacity, they 
may or may not get adequate performance.

--Brett Glass

-----



--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra