[djchen]

> Well that's a convenient argument, given that Level 3 sends way more traffic than it receives on that link, and currently (it seems) isn't paying for that difference.

That is true if Level3 was sending traffic through Verizon to say Cogent or HE. But in this case, the OP is requesting this traffic through VZ and he is paying VZ to carry this traffic for him.

[rtpg]

>requesting this traffic through VZ and he is paying VZ to carry this traffic for him.

That's a very disingenuous way of putting things.

Let's get all the actors in play here:

Netflix - The website/service you're trying to access

Level3 - Netflix's ISP

Version - Your ISP

You

So to get to Netflix you'er going through 2 different entities.

If you consider Level3 and Verizon to be on the same level ( after all, they're both ISPs), then your argument works the same way the other way around : Netflix is paying Level 3 for the connection between it and you, so why shouldn't Level 3 be responsible for this? Why is only Verizon responsible?

The second way of seeing things is that Verizon is responsible for the connection between you and Level3 (i.e. Level3 is a Verizon customer). Level3 wants to just plug in more cables to get better speeds on Verizon.... well who wouldn't expect to have to pay more for that?

In no situation is Level3 entitled to the maximum speed technically available to it for no cost. The counterpart to this is that it's Verizon's responsibility to offer reasonable pricing for upgrades (and not have content discrimination and conflicts of interest).

If Verizon offers the same pricing structure for backbone infrastructure to everyone who asks, it's hard to fault them on this. Level3 is in a particular position given the size of the traffic served.

But if I were a mailer for something like Amazon and were responsible for 35% of packages sent during a day (fake number), it's not like I could just ask FedEx to let me use more of its trucks and get higher priority for free.

[nishonia]

> after all, they're both ISPs

No, Level 3 is not an ISP. So the argument doesn't work the other way around. Also, you've framed things to make it sound as if Level 3 is initiating the traffic, when it is Verizon customers who are pulling data from the Level 3 network.

[djchen]

If I am a paying customer of an ISP, I sure would expect them to get me the content I want at a reasonably high speed, even if that means they need to bring up additional capacity.

You could say Verizon is overselling their bandwidth to customers and that's why they have degraded connections to Level3. Is it not Verizon's obligation to their customers to upgrade their connections to handle what they've sold to their customers?