They are. They're buying 50/5 or 50/10 internet and then asking their ISP to (horror of horrors!) make good on their claim. If the ISP isn't DRAMATICALLY overselling their capacity, things are totally fine. If they can actually deliver on 10% of what they're "promising" (but have cleverly worded the contract to avoid having to actually make good on those claims, a shady practice also), there are no problems with Netflix whatsoever.
Level3 offered to pay for the direct cost of the upgrades, namely a few grand for the fiber transceivers on Comcast's side of the peering point in the carrier hotel. That would mean it's a "free" upgrade, and no end-users are paying for it. But Comcast didn't bite.
That makes your objection COMPLETELY nonsensical.
The question is whether all consumers' prices should go up, or Netflix prices should go up. In the first case, consumers are subsidising netflix for those that use it.
>Level3 offered to pay for the direct cost of the upgrades, namely a few grand for the fiber transceivers on Comcast's side of the peering point in the carrier hotel. That would mean it's a "free" upgrade, and no end-users are paying for it. But Comcast didn't bite.
This is meaningless. As I said elsewhere, they are not complaining about the cost of the upgrade. They're complaining about the cost of taking the extra data. That cost is what would either be passed on to users, or to Netflix. Talking about the direct cost is missing the point.
ISP can't actually deliver said data, and so, can't deliver on their promise.
I can't see how this is Netflix's fault. ISP makes a promise, ISP can't deliver.
Yes it does happen to be coming from Netflix, but Netflix didn't FORCE the ISP's customers to become Netflix customers, did they? Or does Netflix not only have some magical ability to FORCE data upon people, but also mind control to MAKE certain people sign up?
You're arguing that the ISP should be allowed to overstate their capacity as much as they want, and if it causes any problems anywhere, that the counterparty is at fault no matter what. That's completely nonsensical.
> The question is whether all consumers' prices should go up, or Netflix prices should go up.
> They're complaining about the cost of taking the extra data.
Basically they're complaining that they have to make good on the promises that they've made to customers. They were hoping that they could way, way, way oversell their capacity (and charge more for a theoretical peak capacity that you can never use) and get more money from their customers as a result.
Now what's happening is that many of their customers are asking them to make good on 10% of their promises all at the same time. This causes problems for the ISP, so they flail about trying to blame other entities than themselves.
Nobody is asking the ISP to give them a HIGHER data rate than they've already paid for.
They're asking the ISP to give them a mere 10% of what they've already paid for.
