A deeper look at the Comcast/Level3 business relationship

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19 points·mrkurt··4 comments

Level 3 has a direct connection to the Comcast network (I don't think it matters much whether it was peering or transit)

Level 3 gets clever and decides to provide CDN services leveraging their proximity to Comcast. Normally Comcast charges CDNs for the proximity that Level 3 already enjoys as a product of their existing relationship.

Comcast decides "Hey - wait a second, you're now a CDN" and tries to charge them similar fees to what they charge the other CDNs for proximity.

Yep. Level3 more or less decided to start offering a CDN service without setting up an actual CDN. Or at least one that provides any benefit to Comcast (or as Comcast would argue, their customers).

As mentioned in the thread, this is compounded even further by the fact that not only is Comcast not receiving revenue from L3 for power/colocation, but they are also getting taxed by having lease more fiber/lambdas to wherever they are peered to L3.

Definitely interesting, but I'd hesitate to describe it as a "deeper look", like how you might describe an investigative piece. I think the author correctly describes it as an "educated guess".

Doh, I was going to change it to "closer" look or something but I'm out of time. I think closer sounds safer, no?

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