On 12/16/2010 7:47 AM, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
On Wed, 15 Dec 2010 19:05:26 CST, Jack Bates said:
request financing? ie, Comcast could run lower rates and offer better service by charging the content provider, while competitive eyeball networks won't get the option to receive compensation from content providers and have to charge appropriate rates to their customers.
Yes, Comcast *could* do that. But let's stick to plausible scenarios, OK?
How is it not plausible for Comcast to undercut competition to take an even larger market share (and in doing so, extract more money from content providers)? If the competition isn't large enough to force subsidization from content providers in the same manner, they will slowly lose to the unfair competition. Add to this, that if every large provider charges content providers, the rates will be pushed higher to access that content, yet the benefits will not be felt by smaller providers who can't extort the extra income and will be forced to run higher rates to their customers. Smaller ISPs will be more expensive, even without competition, and if they are in a competing market with a larger ISP, they will be that much harder pressed to justify their higher costs (you can only push better service so far) Jack