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Earlier this week Level3 ignited somewhat of an Internet firestorm by proclaiming that Comcast was violating net neutrality by demanding they pay a new connection fee to deliver Internet video services to Comcast customers. Comcast quickly responded, insisting that this was just another balanced exchange peering dispute, the likes of which we've seen tier 1 backbone providers (most frequently Cogent) engaged in over the years. With the PR pendulum swinging in Comcast's direction the last few days, Level3 is <a href="http://www.level3.com/index.cfm?pageID=491&PR=965&WT.rss_f=Press%20Releases&WT.rss_a=Level%203%20Releases%20Statement%20to%20Clarify%20Issues%20in%20Comcast/Level3%20Interconnection%20Dispute&WT.rss_ev=a">back with a new missive</a>, in which they go so far as to define the Internet and insist this is not your vanilla peering dispute:
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The dispute between Level 3 and Comcast is not a peering dispute, which relates to connection of Internet backbone networks. At issue is a fundamental interconnection disagreement between Comcast, as a provider of local high speed Internet access to consumers who pay Comcast for access to content, and Level 3, which delivers content to residential broadband access providers like Comcast in response to consumer requests. Unlike "peering" in the Internet backbone, where competition abounds and prices have been declining steadily, Internet carriers that have content requested by Comcast subscribers have no choice but to exchange traffic with Comcast. Comcast is using this dominant position to demand payment for traffic delivered at its customers requests. You simply cannot "route around" Comcast to provide requested content to Comcast s subscribers.
Level3 takes things a bit further, noting why exactly Comcast would like this framed as a run-of-the-mill peering dispute:
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Comcast is attempting to transform the dispute with Level 3 into a peering dispute because, if it is successful in re-casting the debate, one of the traditional criteria for peering balance of traffic sent versus traffic received could be used to turn even the largest Internet backbone providers into paying customers of Comcast. Why? Because the vast majority of the traffic on Comcast s consumer broadband access network is requested by and flows to Comcast residential subscribers. This means that all of the traffic on Comcast s consumer access networks is and will be decidedly "out of balance" (meaning more traffic flows to Comcast than flows away from Comcast). This is true of any network that provides residential Internet access to consumers.
Level3 again levels the charge that Comcast is simply using their size to exert pricing leverage on Level3, in order to drive up the cost of Netflix streaming broadband video services, the business for which Level3 recently re-acquired from Akamai.
Source: DSLReports.com
