Netflix streaming speeds on Comcast jump 65 percent after controversial deal

theverge.com

9 pointsasaddhamani3 comments

That is beyond messed up. We really need to get the internet classified as a utility.

What exactly is messed up? The bottleneck was the Comcast/Cogent interlink, which Netflix has now bypassed, which was the entire point of the deal.

The idea that Netflix is paying protection money so that Comcast doesn't do the old "Nice service you got there, it'd be a shame if someone throttled it" (as is implied in the article) is just incorrect. Netflix was buying transit from Cogent. Cogent couldn't deliver the transit that Netflix bought due to conflicts with Comcast. Netflix stops buying transit from Cogent and starts buying transit from Comcast. Comcast delivers all the transit that Netflix buys. Everyone is happy except for Cogent.

My concern isn't that they bypassed the middle man; in theory that could be a good thing in the long run. I'm more concerned about Comcast becoming the arbiter of who gets access to their network, and how much that access will cost. By classifying the Internet as a utility, Comcast has to standardize access (again, in theory).

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