• After Comcast, Netflix signs traffic deal with Verizon


    Netflix just confirmed that it will pay Verizon for direct access through the carrier's network, allowing for improved streaming video for customers. According to a brief statement, "We have reached an interconnect arrangement with Verizon that we hope will improve performance for our joint customers over the coming months." The announcement mirrors a similar peering deal inked earlier this year made by Netflix and Comcast, and likely won't be the last of its kind.

    The details of the arrangement are currently confidential. However, they surely must come as a foregone conclusion at least for Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, who said that he expected to sign a deal with the streaming company days after the Comcast agreement. However, the deal flies in the face of the stance Netflix has thusfar espoused, saying that preferential treatment violates their definition of true and total net neutrality. In an impassioned blog post, CEO Reed Hastings wrote, "The essence of net neutrality is that ISPs such as AT&T and Comcast don't restrict, influence or otherwise meddle with the choices consumers make." After the company made what many saw as a Faustian pact with Comcast in February for direct connectivity, Hastings conceded that the company would reluctantly make deals of that kind going forward, while still fighting for net neutrality.

    Verizon has long had issues with Netflix streaming, causing observers to accuse the carrier of throttling the service. Even though the company has officially denied any issues on their end, it did imply that users having issues with content might be the fault of Netflix itself. With the new deal in place, those complaints will likely vanish. But it also means similar deals with other carriers are a sure bet.

    Source: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...19963416350296
    Comments 4 Comments
    1. duke0102's Avatar
      duke0102 -
      So Comcast and Verizon customers are paying for an internet connection and now the ones using Netflix are paying Netflix to pay Comcast/Verizon for the same internet connection? Including government subsidies for connection improvements they are getting paid 3 times for the same service, wow.
    1. Rart's Avatar
      Rart -
      Quote Originally Posted by duke0102 View Post
      So Comcast and Verizon customers are paying for an internet connection and now the ones using Netflix are paying Netflix to pay Comcast/Verizon for the same internet connection? Including government subsidies for connection improvements they are getting paid 3 times for the same service, wow.
      Shit like this is exactly why people can't broadly campaign that a free market economy will solve everything. If there was actually a competitive market in which you could choose ISPs, crap like preferential treatment of traffic wouldn't fly as consumers could just switch carriers. Unfortunately there isn't, and the price of startup for entering into the ISP market is too high, so we can't treat Internet like a competitive market. It needs to a be a utility.
    1. TrakeM's Avatar
      TrakeM -
      Quote Originally Posted by Rart View Post
      Quote Originally Posted by duke0102 View Post
      So Comcast and Verizon customers are paying for an internet connection and now the ones using Netflix are paying Netflix to pay Comcast/Verizon for the same internet connection? Including government subsidies for connection improvements they are getting paid 3 times for the same service, wow.
      Shit like this is exactly why people can't broadly campaign that a free market economy will solve everything. If there was actually a competitive market in which you could choose ISPs, crap like preferential treatment of traffic wouldn't fly as consumers could just switch carriers. Unfortunately there isn't, and the price of startup for entering into the ISP market is too high, so we can't treat Internet like a competitive market. It needs to a be a utility.
      That's true all the way up until you're a congressman being handed a sack of cash by ISPs, then suddenly you start seeing that it's a free market with no issues at all. I don't know about our markets, but our system of government is purely capitalist.
    1. Ptijey's Avatar
      Ptijey -
      hwo care ? we have popcorn time now !