On Thu, 2 Dec 2010, Matthew Petach wrote:
So, one wonders why Level3 didn't just say "look, I'm the vendor,
you're the customer; the customer pays the vendor for service,
period.
There's no wonder here at all. It's not at all hard to imagine the
conversation:
Level3: I'm the vendor, you're the customer; the customer pays the vendor
for service, period.
Comcast: Okay vendor, we aren't going to pay you any more. Go ahead and
shut down our circuits. We'll go ahead and pay you the early termination
penalties or whatever, but keep in mind that the Level3 network has no way
to reach Comcast through any other path thanks to our clever routing
tricks, so your customers, including Netflix, won't be able to reach our
customers.
Level3: But, but, but, you are the customer!
Comcast: Go ahead, shut us down, we dare you. Perhaps you'll want to
find someone to buy transit from that CAN reach us?
I have to say, it's not that hard to imagine because it's exactly what I
would have done in their position. If I were them, I would then proceed
to do the exact same thing to every other "vendor" that they have until
they are a transit free network. Then I might even start demanding
payments from my peers. Why not? Comcast has all the power.
It's exactly what the government has incentivized them to do by allowing
them to have all of those cable monopolies around the country. That's
right, government is the real problem here, Comcast is simply acting in
their own best interest. Now where did I put that CMCS stock...
--
Brandon Ross AIM: BrandonNRoss
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Skype: brandonross Yahoo: BrandonNRoss
