Verizon points more fingers at Netflix: It's YOUR pals slowing data

So, Verizon says that all they are responsible for is the "outbound" portion of the link going to a peer and that the traffic should be symmetric for it to be fair to both Verizon and their peer. So if the outbound is only say 50% utilized for Verizon, they are happy with it. Their peer is also only responsible for their "outbound" (Verizon's inbound) and if that is running at 100%, then that is not Verizons problem at all, but their peer. There are a few issues there:

1) It is the Verizon customer requesting the data, so technically Verizon should be responsible for the inbound portion if not both inbound and outbound.

2) Most consumer broadband connections are asymmetric, where the consumer has more download speed than upload speed. So, if Verizon is only responsible for the outbound portion of the peering links, and there is at least a 10:1 if not 25:1 or 50:1 difference, then there will always be more inbound traffic on the peering links to Verizon as that is the direction of the most traffic.

The broadband customer is not getting what they paid Verizon to provide.

Does anyone believe a word Verizon says? I trust them about as far as I can throw an Abrams tank.

Where's the "lying sack of shit" icon?

All agreed what the problem is...

Really, Netflix and Verizon are in complete agreement that the bottleneck is the bit shown in red - the question is, which of them is preventing that link being upgraded to handle more traffic?

Somewhere behind the scenes, there will have been a communication between Verizon and Netflix's transit provider (Level3?) along these lines: "Hey, this gigabit link between this port of ours and that port of yours is getting busy, can we (plug in a second gigabit|replace it with a ten-gigabit one?" (Probably with higher bandwidths and/or more links than that, but the idea is the same.)

It seems Verizon said something like "we'll charge you $x for upgrading that link", and whatever $x was, the other party thought was too much. Verizon are trying to justify that by saying "ah, but there's 3 times as much traffic coming to us as going out, so we won't do it for free like we would if the traffic were 50-50".

Apart from the 3:1 peak-time traffic ratio, though, the diagram adds nothing to the debate: we all knew it was the transit link between Verizon and Netflix's upstream provider that was the bottleneck, and that one or other end of that link was refusing to upgrade - we just don't know the details of why yet.

Internet providers should never complain about those providing content to their customers if it is exactly what their customers want. The problem here seems to be that Verizon is announcing it doesn't have the money to increase bandwidth on its network.

I think this situation is similar to our mains grid supply situation. We're using more and more power, and most of it during the day. To "fix" this, they have to put in more power stations that only get used during the day, meaning not only is it going to be expensive, the power generation people don't want a bar of it because it'll take eons for them to make their money. Enter "smart" meters that "shape" power usage by outright penalising users who consume power during the day, and rewarding them during the night. Since few normal sane human are going to use their TVs, kettles, ovens, stovetops, washing machines and aircons during off-peak periods (at least here in Australia) that's all bust and the users end up properly screwed.

There is only one certain here, the end user is going to get a lesser service, get screwed in the wallet, and everyone is going to blame everyone else.

Apply occam's razor

Netflix works well on most providers but suffers buffering on Verizon and Verizon claim Netflix has poor peering arrangements which affect only Verizon...

True in a sense

What Verizon says is true in a sense -- from what I've gathered of this situation, Netflix's slowdowns are not happening within Verizon's network, and Verizon is not throttling the traffic.

However, Netflix has plenty of connectivity to these peering points, and are paying for every last bit of it (I have to mention this because US ISP propaganda now is to claim Netflix et. al are getting a "free ride" or "not paying their share"). It is Verizon letting their connection to these peering points hit 100% capacity and failing to upgrade it. They think (even though Netflix is already paying for adequate connectivity to peering points) that they should be able to double-dip and demand that Netflix pay a second time to pay Verizon to upgrade their connection, rather than Verizon allocating some of those numerous profits they make from their own paying customers to maintain the connectivity the customers are paying for.

I mean, I wouldn't get away running an ISP with a 10gbps fiber backbone and some 1.5mbps DSL links to the internet at large, then go around demanding Google, Amazon, etc. all pay me to upgrade the 1.5mbps DSL lines, would I? This is *exactly* what AT&T, Verizon, etc. are expecting to happen; charging customers for internet connectivity, but pocketing that as profit and expecting third parties pay for the internet connectivity instead.