Interesting point. I'd also like to point out that putting the cost on the content providers rather than the network may raise the cost of the content service, but only to those that want that service. In effect, if the transport provider is paying for the bandwidth generated by a content provider, in effect we have another service bundled to all services offered, which increases the cost to people using Internet service but not necessarily accessing that content. Kind of the same reason TV channels aren't a la carte. Sincerely, Brian A . Rettke RHCT, CCDP, CCNP, CCIP Network Engineer, CableONE Internet Services -----Original Message----- From: George Bonser [mailto:gbonser@seven.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 11:41 PM To: JC Dill; NANOG list Subject: RE: Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style
From: JC Dill Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 10:20 PM To: NANOG list Subject: Re: Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style
On 15/12/10 10:05 PM, George Bonser wrote:
If the customer pays the cost of the transport, a provider with
better
transport efficiency / quality ratio wins.
This (and everything that followed) assumes the customer has a choice of providers. For most customers who already have Comcast, they don't have any choice for similar broadband services (speeds). So open market principles don't come into play, and Comcast knows it.
No, you misunderstood. It doesn't matter if you have only one internet service provider. If the end customer foots the bill, the incentive for innovation is for the *content* provider to strike a balance between quality and cost that the customers want. If the *content* provider foots the bill, innovation is driven in a way that the content providers want. Lets say I have foo.com and bar.com that offer video services and I am on Comcast. If Comcast meters my bandwidth usage and foo.com has good quality with a lower bandwidth use, I use foo. In the other model, if the content providers subsidize the bill, bar.com might be completely bloated but they have deep pockets and can pay the subsidy, they drive foo.com out of business and Comcast still has a congested network.