Netflix, of course, needs this (or some fraction of it) to be true. Meanwhile, all the current (lazy, inept, consumer-hostile, mediocre) bandwidth providers are going to try to fuck them out of the game.

So a big part of me wonders what Netflix is working on behind the scenes to secure their future from a bandwidth perspective. This is a company that has always been so proactive – I have a hard time believing they're twiddling their thumbs and hoping that AT&T, Comcast and other telecom companies will be menschy guys.

What could they do? I know very little about large scale networking. Is there some supply-side critical path that a company like Comcast needs that Netflix could buy for leverage? On the consumer end, is it reasonable to imagine them reselling bandwidth to end-users under terms that favor their business, thus spurring competition?

Everyone who controls the consumer side of bandwidth seems to be an asshole of one flavor or another – perhaps Netflix's needs could align with consumers in such a way as to change that.