[achille]

Could this be a plan for Netflix to even out the upstream & downstream traffic? Upstream traffic is significantly more expensive for ISPs to absorb (esp at the last mile). ISPs are demanding payment because they claim they're absorbing more traffic than they're sending back [1]. Netflix could just update their client to saturate upstream traffic while maintaining downstream traffic.

From the article: "But for some reason, its share of uploads went up substantially in the latest measurement while downloads remained level."

[1] - http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/07/how-co... Tier 1 networks have generally exchanged traffic with each other without payment if they send and receive roughly equal amounts of data. Schaeffer has claimed it's impossible for Comcast to be "in balance" with any other network because its own Internet service is designed for consumers to download far more than they upload

[wmf]

Could this be a plan for Netflix to even out the upstream traffic & downstream traffic?

No, because that would not help them.

A lot of ISPs are demanding payment because they claim they're absorbing more traffic than they're sending back.

This is just a misdirection tactic from ISPs who have no intention of offering free peering to Netflix under any circumstances. Backbone peering agreements are irrelevant since neither Netflix nor broadband ISPs are backbones.