"...it costs the ISP a lot more to deliver those bits to their customers than it would cost L3 or Netflix to string a cable across a datacentre."
Um, why would Netflix agree to ongoing, recurring payments for a peering agreement when they could have simply have incurred a one-time cost by adding some hardware on their side? I believe it is because the missing resources were not on Netflix's side of the connection.
"Much of the argument is about large content providers like Netflix passing their delivery costs onto the ISPs, who would then have no choice but to pass costs on to their subscribers."
And again, um, isn't that how the Internet works? Users pay for a connection, then go out to external sites and exchange packets. Yes, when the packets consist of a video stream from Netflix the arrangement is pretty one-sided, but then this is >>EXACTLY<< what ISP's expect. My connection is rated for 50 Mb downstream, but only 5Mb up...
Why does a packet from Netflix "cost more" to deliver to me than a packet due to downloading an ISO image from Debian?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
