From a press release issued by Time Warner:
“The recent news regarding the negotiations between Level 3 and Comcast has raised many questions about the way peering agreements are negotiated between Network Operators and has been inappropriately lumped into the issue of network neutrality. These agreements have been and continue to be negotiated based on the amounts of traffic, not the type, being delivered to each party’s network by the other. When the amount of traffic being delivered between two networks is generally balanced a “Settlement Free” peering agreement is likely the result. However, when the amount of traffic is not balanced, it is commonplace for the network operator receiving the greater level of traffic to insist on compensation for the added costs that are faced as a result. Again, the issue in these negotiations is the amount, not the type of data being transported. Additionally, regardless of whether two Network Operators reach an agreement, end users will still be able to receive any data or content they wish to reach as that traffic will find an alternate route over other available interconnecting networks. Because there is no discrimination among different types of content, and no blocking of content, peering agreements between Network Operators don’t raise Net Neutrality issues and have never been part of the Net Neutrality debate.”
Just like Comcast, Time Warner also isn’t only an internet provider. They are the second biggest cable provider in the country (Comcast is first). That means they are wanting to do what they can to drive up the costs of the largest competition to the cable industry. Netflix has been killing the cable industry and now the big telecom companies are trying to strangle the competition. This issue really needs to go beyond the FCC and involve the FTC and DOJ. Comcast should be investigated for possible violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. It’s time to put the breaks on these big monopolies.