A fight between Comcast, the nation’s largest ISP, and Level 3, the nation’s largest broadband backbone provider, is portrayed as a simple commercial disagreement over how much traffic Level 3 plans to send Comcast after Level 3 signed an agreement to act as the content delivery network for Netflix. But many believe it has the potential to change the way the web works. Over the next few hours and days, many people will weigh in on the issue and many new insights will be shared. We’ll document them here so our readers can see the story as it emerges, so check back for updates and insights as they hit our inboxes.
Nov. 29:
Level 3 issues a statement claiming Comcast is charging it for delivering movies and video content to Comcast subscribers, a fee that Level 3 likened to placing a toll bridge on the Internet. Comcast later came out and said that Level 3 was trying to take advantage of its peering agreement with Comcast to undercut other CDNs and that the dispute was essentially a commercial one. Netflix and the Federal Communications Commission are silent on the issue.
Nov. 30:
Commentary on the web accelerates with some accepting the commercial disagreement argument, and others seeing in the move a chance to implement a double-sided revenue model for ISPs that would allow ISPs to collect revenue not only from the end consumer of broadband, but also the folks trying to send the traffic over the ISP’s pipes. Meanwhile, Netflix is still silent, but it likely didn’t see this fight coming.
In a press conference the FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski declined to comment on the issue but said, “The staff is looking into it.”
Level 3 Responds to Comcast’s statement with a new statement that scoffs at the idea of this as a peering dispute and portrays it again as Comcast being anticompetitive. The statement reads in part:
The fundamental issue is not whether Comcast sends more traffic to Level 3 or whether Level 3 sends more traffic to Comcast. Both Level 3 and Comcast are responding to the requests of Comcast’s subscribers, who want to be free to see and use the full suite of content and applications that are available on the Internet today and in the future. Level 3 wants to assure that freedom is preserved.
”Instead, the fundamental issue is whether Comcast, as the largest cable company in the country with absolute control over access to its cable TV and broadband access subscribers, has the right to unilaterally set a ‘price’ for that access that effectively discriminates against competitors of Comcast’s cable and Xfinity content.
Check back for more.
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