10 Facts About Peering, Comcast and Level 3
1. Our customers get access to all the online video they want, along with any other Internet content, application, or service they choose -- regardless of its source.
2. Any rumors about blocking Netflix are false.
3. Our customers can and do watch video from any online video provider, including Netflix and dozens of others, on our high-speed Internet service.
4. And, regardless of how this dispute with Level 3 turns out, that will continue to be the case.
5. We charge a flat fee for our high-speed Internet service and do not charge any additional price to consumers to watch these online video services.
6. Peering agreements are negotiated commercial arrangements between providers like Comcast and Level 3 that carry traffic across the networks that comprise the Internet. These agreements have existed for over a decade.
7. There is nothing about this dispute with Level 3 that concerns an effort by Comcast either to resist carrying Internet video traffic or imposing new "tolls" on it.
8. This is all about Level 3 gaining an unfair advantage over its competitors by gaining enormous additional capacity at no cost to itself, instead shifting the financial costs to Comcast's high speed data customers.
9. Our agreement with Level 3 is no different than our agreements with its competitors.
10. The bottom line is that this is a good, old-fashioned commercial peering dispute. It is not about online video, it is not a net neutrality issue, it is not about "paid prioritization," and it does not involve putting "toll booths" on the Internet.
Enter Comments
Please note that all comments on the Comcast Voices blog must follow the guidelines outlined in the blog policy. All comments will be moderated prior to appearing on the blog. This is important to prevent spam and personal attacks. If posting a comment about a specific customer service problem or personal account issue, please contact us here, or post your question to the Comcast Help & Support forums.
Comments (5)
Something is not right here - Comcast not telling the truth.
December 7th 2004 Comcast issued a Press Release stating that they signed a 20yr contract with "Level 3" to get inter-city and metro fiber IRU's. As part of the agreement Comcast paid Level 3 to connect AS3356 (Level 3) to AS7922 for IP transit. Level 3 is one of ten Tier 1 ISP's in the world, and as part of a "Tier 1 ISP", they "do not" pay for transit to any provider.
By Netflix signing on to Level 3 this would increase the traffic substantially to AS3356 as Netflix is consuming up to 25% of total internet useage in the USA.
@MC Comcast interconnects with Level 3 and hundreds of other networks, measuring capacity in multiple Terabytes per second. There is no threat of the parties disconnecting from one another. In the remote event that were to happen, there are other CDNs (fifty CDNs operate in North America alone, according to industry sources) and networks that serve Netflix content to Comcast. Put another way, there are multiple paths for any piece of Internet content to reach a user, and internet engineers from Comcast and other companies constantly seek to optimize those paths. This is true for Level 3 as well -- if may use multiple transit paths to reach Comcast's network and its customers if it does not peer directly with Comcast.
@ JT,
So are you saying that Level 3 uses Comcast as an internet provider?
What would happen if Level 3 decides to not renew/sign this contract with Comcast. Will consumers not be able to watch netflix movies? If so, then yes, it does affect consumers!
To Fred's point, how is comcast supposed to provide an equal amount of traffic between itself and Level 3? By having Netflix choose Comcast as their delivery provider?
@Fred What's at issue here is what is known as a dispute over "commercial peering" between Comcast and Level 3. This commercial dispute does not impact our service to our customers. You can access any content you want anywhere on the Internet, just as you always have. You can watch video online from any provider, including Netflix and dozens of others, just as you always have.
The Terms of Service you reference in your post are for residential customers. We offer different levels of Business Services packages for commercial customers, which would meet the needs you mentioned.
Joe,
1) Comcast is inherently an imbalanced network. They have millions of subscribers with 15Mb/s download and 3Mb/s upload. That is a 5:1 ratio. So of course other networks connecting into Comcast will have an imbalance of traffic delivered vs traffic received.
2) Comcast charges significant fees from millions of "consumers" that "consume" traffic from popular sites, not just to connect to Comcast. These consumers are paying to use the Comcast network “access” the Internet. Internet networks therefore should not have to pay fees to “access” Comcast subscribers.
3) The Comcast Subscriber Terms of Service specifically prevents subscribers from publishing content to the internet.
Subscribers cannot:
• use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises local area network (“Premises LAN”), also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited to, e-mail, Web hosting, file sharing, and proxy services and servers;
• use or run programs from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises LAN, except for personal and non-commercial residential use;
So the whole concept of a “peering” agreement is baseless. Comcast specifically prevents balanced peering.