When you start looking into the relationship between Cogent and Level 3. One starts to wonder if all this is not a straw-man argument anyways. It seems to me that both Cogent and Level 3 are both united in their stance against Verizon regarding these sorts of tactics [1].
There are some interesting points in that Ars article that I think are worth noting. For one, what is being discussed in that article is case in point what Verizon is admitting they are doing. They have the head-room to handle the bandwidth that Cogent and Level 3 could send in their direction [2]. However are specifically not adding any more interconnections and asking for someone to pay for more interconnections. Sounds like a "toll" to me.
The other point that is interesting to me is in some of the debate about net neutrality people specifically state that what they what is for ISPs to not purposely throttle traffic on their network. However, this tactic seems to be the loop-hole in that request. Meaning if Verizon never properly peers with Level 3 then they have no reason to throttle the Level 3 traffic. It is already made scarce, and throttled, by the arbitrary scarcity of the limited traffic that is allowed through the peers. Thus Verizon and all ISPs can adhere to the letter of the law. While probably ignoring the spirit of it.
There are some interesting points in that Ars article that I think are worth noting. For one, what is being discussed in that article is case in point what Verizon is admitting they are doing. They have the head-room to handle the bandwidth that Cogent and Level 3 could send in their direction [2]. However are specifically not adding any more interconnections and asking for someone to pay for more interconnections. Sounds like a "toll" to me.
The other point that is interesting to me is in some of the debate about net neutrality people specifically state that what they what is for ISPs to not purposely throttle traffic on their network. However, this tactic seems to be the loop-hole in that request. Meaning if Verizon never properly peers with Level 3 then they have no reason to throttle the Level 3 traffic. It is already made scarce, and throttled, by the arbitrary scarcity of the limited traffic that is allowed through the peers. Thus Verizon and all ISPs can adhere to the letter of the law. While probably ignoring the spirit of it.
[1] http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/03/level-3-and-cogent-a...
[2] http://publicpolicy.verizon.com/blog/entry/why-is-netflix-bu...