Verizon says FCC cannot regulate Netflix-like interconnection deals

Himanshu Arora

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Telecommunications giant Verizon has told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that the agency cannot regulate paid interconnection deals like the one the company struck with Netflix earlier this year. In a filing to the FCC, Verizon’s vice president and associate general counsel William H. Johnson said that the regulator cannot do so even if it reclassifies broadband under Title II of the Communications Act.

"The Commission cannot under any circumstances lawfully impose Title II common-carriage requirements on interconnection, as some regulatory proponents propose,” Johnson said. "Such requirements apply only to common carriers, that is, to telecommunications service providers already engaged as a common carrier for hire."

And since providers of CDN, transit, or other interconnection services do not offer those services on a common-carrier basis, the government agency cannot relegate them to common carrier status by imposing common-carriage regulation, the company said, citing the DC Circuit.

Netflix recently struck paid interconnection deals with Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and AT&T in order to get access to less congested paths into their networks, something which ensures that its customers get a decent streaming experience.

Despite the deals, last September the video-on-demand company asked the FCC to mandate settlement-free interconnection, wherein ISPs would offer interconnection but without payment of any sort.

For its part, Verizon blamed Netflix and Cogent, saying that these as well as other Internet players make decisions on their own networks that affect the speeds or performance that end users experience, adding that any argument to regulate interconnection arrangements therefore would apply equally to those arrangements, too.

According to Ars Technica, despite Verizon's argument, should the FCC reclassify broadband as a common carrier service, the agency would be at least in a position to insist on more reasonable interconnection rates, as well as intervene in disputes between service providers and content companies like Netflix.

The FCC is expected to come up with its net neutrality guidelines in 2015.

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This would be true if Verizon had laid down private lines to Netflix as part of the deal, but as far as I'm aware all network traffic that Netflix gives is going over public lines. Certainly they have an ISP, but it isn't as if they paid Verizon to lay down lines running to everyones house for them to use. Netflix is basically paying to NOT have their traffic throttled.

And this is about so much more than just Netflix. I've said this many times before but I am paying for 500GB of data @ 100mbps(50mbps realistically). If your ISP slows your connection to the point that you cannot stream HD content then you are not receiving 500GB@100mbps. I want this to stop being about Netflix and start being about the consumer. The ISP's are looking for legal ways to not provide us with the products we are paying for.

Data is all the same, there is absolutely no reason why 100GB of netflix is different from 100GB from steam or youtube. The only reason I see ISP's like comcast and verizon doing this is that netflix provides a quality service at a VERY reasonable price. Rather than trying compete by providing a quality product at a reasonable price, they are extorting money out of Netflix. This is nothing short of anticompetitive behavior and the people who lose the most are the consumer.
 
This would be true if Verizon had laid down private lines to Netflix as part of the deal, but as far as I'm aware all network traffic that Netflix gives is going over public lines. Certainly they have an ISP, but it isn't as if they paid Verizon to lay down lines running to everyones house for them to use. Netflix is basically paying to NOT have their traffic throttled.

And this is about so much more than just Netflix. I've said this many times before but I am paying for 500GB of data @ 100mbps(50mbps realistically). If your ISP slows your connection to the point that you cannot stream HD content then you are not receiving 500GB@100mbps. I want this to stop being about Netflix and start being about the consumer. The ISP's are looking for legal ways to not provide us with the products we are paying for.

Data is all the same, there is absolutely no reason why 100GB of netflix is different from 100GB from steam or youtube. The only reason I see ISP's like comcast and verizon doing this is that netflix provides a quality service at a VERY reasonable price. Rather than trying compete by providing a quality product at a reasonable price, they are extorting money out of Netflix. This is nothing short of anticompetitive behavior and the people who lose the most are the consumer.

Amen to that! I think this is also a symptom of big *** corporations in this country. Its bad enough the current FCC chairman was a lobbyist for this industry.
 
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