There is no gaming on measurements and disputes are isolated and temporary with issues not unique over the history of the internet. I think all the same rhetorical quotes continue to be reused
- Kevin > On May 15, 2014, at 11:43 AM, "Scott Berkman" <sc...@sberkman.net> wrote: > > Unfortunately these build-outs are primarily in subscriber facing bandwidth > and number of headend locations (to add more customers to the network). > These peering point/transit connection issues have been going on for a long > time, evidenced by Level 3 coming out with this post. Comcast is also > suspiciously absent from public exchanges (TelX's TIE would be one example) > while many of their competitors participate for the benefit of the Internet > as a whole and their customers. > > Measured broadband is also a game, because its very easy for large providers > to give priority to (or otherwise "help") known speed test and similar sites, > giving customers a false impression of their available capacity or > performance. We've all seen cases where customers have some amazing result > on their favorite test site, and then real world performance can't even come > close. > > That said, if Comcast does or is making efforts to finally resolve this, more > power to them and congratulations to their customers. Unfortunately trying to > brute-force the industry and external content providers tells a very > different story. Where is Comcast's official blog post showing evidence as > to where they do ensure their peering and or transit to the largest Tier 1 > providers are not congested? Instead all we see are policy arguments about > who should pay for what, while users continue to suffer. > > This is really similar to when TV providers have spats with content owners, > and the result is the end users missing out on something they are paying for. > It is good for related industries and the large players in each to keep > working with each other in open ways to keep pricing reasonable (as opposed > to working together in hiding to price fix), but it is not OK to do so by > throwing tantrums and making everyone involved suffer. > > -Scott > > >> On 05/15/2014 10:57 AM, McElearney, Kevin wrote: >> Upgrades/buildout are happening every day. They are continuous to keep >> ahead of demand and publicly measured by SamKnows (FCC measuring broadband), >> Akamai, Ookla, etc >> >> What is not well known is that Comcast has been an existing commercial >> transit business for 15+ years (with over 8000 commercial fiber customers). >> Comcast also has over 40 balanced peers with plenty of capacity, and some of >> the largest Internet companies as customers. >> >> - Kevin >> >> 215-313-1083 >> >>> On May 15, 2014, at 10:19 AM, "Owen DeLong" <o...@delong.com> wrote: >>> >>> Oh, please do explicate on how this is inaccurate… >>> >>> Owen >>> >>>> On May 14, 2014, at 2:14 PM, McElearney, Kevin >>>> <kevin_mcelear...@cable.comcast.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> Respectfully, this is a highly inaccurate "sound bite" >>>> >>>> - Kevin >>>> >>>> 215-313-1083 >>>> >>>>> On May 14, 2014, at 3:05 PM, "Owen DeLong" <o...@delong.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Yes, the more accurate statement would be aggressively seeking new >>>>> ways to monetize the existing infrastructure without investing in upgrades >>>>> or additional buildout any more than absolutely necessary. >>>>> >>>>> Owen >>>>> >>>>> On May 14, 2014, at 8:02 AM, Hugo Slabbert <h...@slabnet.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>>> So they seek new sources of revenues, and/or attempt to thwart >>>>>>>> competition any way they can. >>>>>> No to the first. Yes to the second. If they were seeking new sources of >>>>>>> revenue, they'd be massively expanding into un/der served markets and >>>>>>> aggressively growing over the top services (which are fat margin). >>>>>> Sure they are (seeking new sources of revenue). They're not necessarily >>>>>> creating new products or services, i.e. actually adding any value, but >>>>>> they >>>>>> are finding ways to extract additional revenue from the same pipes, e.g. >>>>>> through paid peering with content providers. >>>>>> >>>>>> I'm not endorsing this; just pointing out that you two are actually in >>>>>> agreement here. >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> Hugo >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>>> On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 7:23 AM, <char...@thefnf.org> wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> On 2014-05-14 02:04, Jean-Francois Mezei wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> On 14-05-13 22:50, Daniel Staal wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> They have the money. They have the ability to get more money. *They >>>>>>>> see >>>>>>>>> no reason to spend money making customers happy.* They can make more >>>>>>>>> profit without it. >>>>>>>> There is the issue of control over the market. But also the pressure >>>>>>>> from shareholders for continued growth. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Yes. That is true. Except that it's not. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> How do service providers grow? Let's explore that: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> What is growth for a transit provider? >>>>>>> >>>>>>> More (new) access network(s) (connections). >>>>>>> More bandwidth across backbone pipes. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> What is growth for access network? >>>>>>> More subscribers. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Except that the incumbent carriers have shown they have no interest in >>>>>>> providing decent bandwidth to anywhere but the most profitable rate >>>>>>> centers. I'd say about 2/3 of the USA is served with quite terrible >>>>>>> access. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> The problem with the internet is that while it had promises of wild >>>>>>>> growth in the 90s and 00s, once penetration reaches a certain level, >>>>>>>> growth stabilizes. >>>>>>> Penetration is ABYSMAL sir. Huge swaths of underserved americans exist. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> When you combine this with threath to large incumbents's media and >>>>>>>> media >>>>>>>> distribution endeavours by the likes of Netflix (and cat videos on >>>>>>>> Youtube), large incumbents start thinking about how they will be able >>>>>>>> to >>>>>>>> continue to grow revenus/profits when customers will shift spending to >>>>>>>> vspecialty channels/cableTV to Netflix and customer growth will not >>>>>>>> compensate. >>>>>>> Except they aren't. Even in the most profitable rate centers, they've >>>>>>> declined to really invest in the networks. They aren't a real business. >>>>>>> You >>>>>>> have to remember that. They have regulatory capture, natural/defacto >>>>>>> monopoly etc etc. They don't operate in the real world of >>>>>>> risk/reward/profit/loss/uncertainty like any other real business has to. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> So they seek new sources of revenues, and/or attempt to thwart >>>>>>>> competition any way they can. >>>>>>> No to the first. Yes to the second. If they were seeking new sources of >>>>>>> revenue, they'd be massively expanding into un/der served markets and >>>>>>> aggressively growing over the top services (which are fat margin). They >>>>>>> did >>>>>>> a bit of an advertising campaign of "smart home" offerings, but that >>>>>>> seems >>>>>>> to have never grown beyond a pilot. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> The current trend is to "if you can't fight them, jon them" where >>>>>>>> cablecos start to include the Netflix app into their proprietary >>>>>>>> set-top >>>>>>>> boxes. The idea is that you at least make the customer continue to use >>>>>>>> your box and your remote control which makes it easier for them to >>>>>>>> switch between netflix and legacy TV. >>>>>>> True. I don't know why one of the cablecos hasn't licensed roku, added >>>>>>> cable card and made that available as a "hip/cool" set top box offering >>>>>>> and >>>>>>> charge another 10.00 a month on top of the standard dvr rental. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Would be interesting to see if those cable companies that are agreeing >>>>>>>> to add the Netflix app onto their proprietary STBs also play peering >>>>>>>> capacity games to degrade the service or not. >>>>>>> So how is the content delivered? Is it over the internet? Or is it over >>>>>>> the cable plant, from cable headends? >