NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Netflix announces their Internet set top box streaming movie service
lauren@vortex.com said: > This is of course in direct competition with ISP PPV movie offerings, but > unlike ISP-provided content, *will* count against the bandwidth caps and > limits determined by the ISPs themselves. There is a lot of comparing apples-to-oranges in this statement. For one thing, Cable ISPs like Comcast use different bands (specifically, DTV spectrum) for PPV and on-demand, which don't compete with IP traffic for bandwidth. Also, the ISPs have a natural advantage in that they can deliver content from within their own local networks and so don't have to pay the backbone providers for the cost of transporting that much traffic. Are you saying that companies who have invested in local infrastructure should be prevented from using it to deliver video because it unfairly competes with Internet companies who haven't? Or that video delivery from places like Netflix should be exempt from bandwidth caps and limits just because it happens to be the same type of content the ISP provides? This is a very slippery slope. If you really want network neutrality then video content is no different than text when calculating usage against caps and limitations, regardless of the ISP's other businesses. john-