Now that some of the dust has settled and all the pundits have had a chance to weigh in, it’s time for a poll. However, instead of a straight vote for Level 3 or Comcast which would turn into a popularity contest, I thought it would be more interesting to look at the many actual points of dispute that have been raised either by the two companies or by various opinionators (myself included). I’ve given you my take, what’s yours?
[poll id=”44″]
If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!
Categories: Internet Traffic · Old · Polls
Join Our LinkedIn Group
Would Comcast have an issue if the Netflix video streaming deal was split among more transit/CDN providers? For example, if there were 4 or 5 CDN providers like Akamai, Limelight, etc splitting the Netflix video traffic would it matter to Comcast? The fact that it is coming from one large transit/CDN provider has surfaced the issue in their eyes, but the total amount of video streaming traffic that needs to be carried on their “last mile” network to their customers is unchanged. Hence, I am not sure what basis they are basis their argument on.
Rob, I was thinking about implementing a poll, far less extensive than yours last night, on another venue which I hadn’t gotten around to.
However, when I went to your poll just now, I notice the results are in without my own ability to “VOTE.”
Could someone have hacked my IP address and implemented my vote at your site? I have a suspicion that this has been taking place to me recently. If so, I know where the culprit may be.
Don’t forget that, only the paranoid survive, and I wear a TIN FOIL HAT that SHINES very LOUD!
Hi Carlk, in theory they’d have to be on the same machine with the same IP address, however the polls come from a third party plugin and I don’t know that much about its inner workings.
The theory is impossible on this end. Here’s what happened for your information to pass along to them, if you prefer. After clicking on the “read more” link from the “Home” page, the poll results were already visible as if I had hit “view results” when I got there, which I hadn’t. After I wrote the post and submitted it for your feedback, the voting option became available to me. At that point, I was able to exercise my votes. Thanks for your feedback, and establishing great poll parameters.
The same happened to me as well
Funny, after I posted the above comment, it refreshed the screen and the poll was there waiting for me,, just sort of thumbing its nose
One other interesting point for the “pollster company” is that, although the poll asks for (3) choices to be made by each voter, just 75 percent of voters are exercising such rights if 212 voters is correct. Only 481 votes(2.27 votes per voter) have been tallied, versus 636 if every voter used 3 votes.
I suppose if this were a test in school, 25 percent of the students would fail(1 in 4). No wonder our US nation is failing to educate our children. The pollster company could have alleviated this problem by forcing participants to cast all 3 votes with the use of software, I would think.
sounds a little “kooky” to me carl, c’mon tin foil hats?
There may be a little kook in all of us, but there are good kooks and bad kooks. Reasonable, rational minds can discern the difference between both, and reasonable minds should work aggressively at ridding the world of the bad kooks whenever possible; lest the world turns to tyranny.
It seems to me that Comcast is in a monopoly position sitting between the demand from their own customers and the supply of content that Comcast doesn’t control. They are doing this because they can. That’s what a monopolist does. Didn’t Level 3 believe at one time that they would be in that position of control between supply & demand? Comcast has a pretty powerful business model but it remains vulnerable to ever advancing technology. My judgement is that the company with the greatest risk here is Netflix. If Comcast is successful in building a portfolio of content, they will want those Level 3 pipes to carry their content to the rest of the world. As more of Netflix content goes to streaming, what’s to keep Comcast et al from buying the same content, ie movies, and offering them up themselves. And, of course, content owners such as Comcast will likely keep their proprietary content – well, proprietary.
You might be missing the point surrounding Level 3’s original model, which remains in force today, especially since (3) moved the battle lines closer via “metro” surrounding supply/demand factors tied to their “fiber factory.”
Indeed, LVLT remains a neutral supplier of bandwidth to the marketplace. Thank God for that! Because LVLT was built on a technology model, increased demand in the form of bit units consumed, is offered with corresponding reduction in price per bit. It’s the same model as Intel and silicon chips called “Silicon Economics.”
Up until now-pervasive video arriving on the scene-certain analysts and naysayers would refer to it as “SILLY ECONOMICS” where nothing more than “white mice” installed in our PIPES would satisfy the stupidity of it all.
Crowe has come back to fight these oligopolists in their last mile territory once again, approx. ten years later-also an interesting time frame considering Comcast’s remarks-in order to finish the BELL BUSTER work (3) needed to accomplish in order that; FREEDOM of INFORMATION and EXPRESSION could RING LOUD and CLEAR across the GLOBE.
Comcast will not get a piece of us, and (3)’s defense of Netflix will stand, if justice shall prevail over despots and dicators. That’s the story I stand by.
i stand by the part where people pay for stuff they want to buy. and if they can’t agree on a price, they go elsewhere and let markets sort out pricing… What if L3 demanded .79 cent double cheeseburgers from McDonalds and they said we only sell .99 cent cheeseburgers? Would they go to the dept of agriculture for relief? this whole thing is ridiculous?
And comcast shoud watch themselves, too. L3 has a huge network and can de peer them and peer in market with their other providers (e.g., VZ, T) and they comcast gets nada
as long as they are cooking them on their own grills and not asking to use McDonald’s equipment to do it, right?
Study this and get back to me with a report.
http://www.level3.com/index.cfm?pageID=491&PR=965