Comments on: Netflix: ISPs Overcharging Subs With Tiered Data Plans

By: Telecom-related news

Telecom-related news — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 06:43:19 +0000

[...] Netflix: ISPs Overcharging Subs With Tiered Data Plans By Ryan Lawler Jan. 26, 2011 http://gigaom.com/broadband/netflix-tiered-data/ [...]

By: Kate Schackai

Kate Schackai — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:10:47 +0000

This fascinates me to no end. Having spent my early work years mired in the details of UNEs and collocation, I can’t read about streaming content providers and broadband/content conglomerates without wondering if this is the new CLEC v. ILEC showdown. At the end of the day, it was technology, not regulation, that brought real competition to telecom; I wonder what developments will shape this market.

By: Per-Ola

Per-Ola — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:53:20 +0000

I would dare to say that “last mile infrastructure” in many markets is paid for many times over. The actual “last mile infrastructure” has changed little since CATVs also started deploying internet services over their physical plant.
On top of that, in many jurisdictions, they are “protected” from any real competition by franchise agreements, making it hard for new players (although expensive) to enter the market.
The lack of alternatives in the “last mile” is one of the biggest issues we have to overcome in order to provide for any real competition in the “connectivity” market.

And, as all technology, price erosion is a factor. HW gets better/more performing over time (lets’ just look at our mobile networks), but ISPs still manages to literally pull our legs and keep raising prices. They CAN do that since there is little to no competition in the “last mile infrastructure”.

By: Netflix lobbying for broadband consumers to subsidize Netflix | SiliconANGLE

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:17:05 +0000

[...] 3 Communications in its peering dispute against Comcast (see video explanation). Hastings told Gigaom that ISPs were overcharging content providers like Netflix and consumers alike, but his analysis is [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:54:23 +0000

Why? ISP’s do nothing to market, manage, or package the content. This is like saying FEDEX deserves to charge extra for delivering packaged for Amazon. The bottom line is that ISP’s do deserve to make a profit from their infrastructure investments. But unlike FEDEX they face no legitimate competition. In my above example, there’s nothing stopping FEDEX today from charging extra to deliver Amazon’s packages other then the fact that Amazon will just ship with UPS instead.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 04:07:39 +0000

A war is definitely brewing.

By: Netflix Talks Increases In Revenue & Subscribers, International Services, ISPs

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:18:12 +0000

[...] What could hit Netflix hard is the trend towards ISPs switching from unlimited-up-to-a-large-cap models to pay-per-gigabyte models for data usage. Along with other online video companies, any such move could harm its business in a big way. The statement from CEO Reed Hastings is discussed further on GigaOM. [...]

By: Sid

Sid — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:15:13 +0000

It’s not %100, it’s 100 times

By: e.w.

e.w. — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:53:05 +0000

“The ISPs’ costs, however, to deliver a marginal gigabyte, which is about an hour of viewing, from one of our regional interchange points over their last mile wired network to the consumer is less than a penny, and falling,”

…

“That means that ISPs introducing tiered data plans could be overcharging subscribers by up to 100 percent.”

The math here is wrong. If the marginal cost to transfer a gig of data is $0.01, and the price charged is $1.00, the markup is 9900%.

nearly ten THOUSAND percent, not one hundred percent.

and I agree with Todd, the cost of SMS is obscene, even scandalous. these companies should be sued into oblivion.

By: Todd

Todd — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:54:33 +0000

Mr. Hastings may be forgetting that many of the ISPs he’s calling out are some of the same people who [still] charge $1,500.00 a megabyte for SMS.

…in their mind, 100% mark-up is a “deal”.

http://techcrunch.com/2008/07/01/atts-text-messages-cost-1310-per-megabyte/