Comcast Hints at Plan for Paid Fast Lanes after Net Neutrality Repeal

[aaronspink]

So, short term, this is going to be a pain in the ass. Know why Comcast is talking about paid premium lanes?

Because Comcast and companies like it have to pay for bandwidth, and with Net Neutrality, they could force other companies to share the burden of what they themselves use.

Now they will be forced to pay for what they use themselves, and can't force other companies to share that cost.


In the short term, they are going to try to make back that revenue with "fast lanes".

Long term, this is going to open up things for more competition - what happens when a smaller start up can offer their own fast lanes without the premium price?

This is going to be the beginning of long overdue competition in the ISP area, which is exactly why comcast didn't want this to happen.

There have probably been posts that have been more wrong but I don't think I've ever seen them. It literally gets the economics literally completely reversed. Here's a hint, Comcast is a net receiver peering network, they aren't paying shit for bandwidth, in all likely hood people are paying them.

 

[Master_shake_]

There are no fastlanes just normal speed and fucking slow.

You pay to return to normal.

 

[Derangel]

The reason why paid fast lanes are such a problem is because it essentially forces competing services such as Netflix, etc. to pay for them, which in turn forces Netflix to pass those costs onto the consumer. Allowing an ISP to pick and choose what traffic gets priority is simply stupid. Comcast, (NBC universal) will simply extort other streaming, i.e. competition, into paying. This will only further mega mergers where soon every ISP will own or be owned by a major network, who've all merged into one massive media conglomerate, thereby reducing the number of choices the consumer has. Cutting the cord won't be any cheaper than having, {insert provider here}, latest bundled offer. This is simply a move by the largest corporations to remain viable and relevant without having to innovate. Bravo, big corporations, bravo.

This, very much this. Add to the fact that if Disney doesn't pick up Fox either Comcast or Verizon will. Buying Fox will give the new owner 30% ownership of Hulu. This is a serious issue as Verizon or Comcast could easily prioritize Hulu connections for free while charging for fast lane access to other services. They could also exempt Hulu from any data caps. Hell, they could go the mobile way and "optimize" non-Hulu streaming services to run at only DVD quality, or less, while making sure to deliver the speed to allow Hulu to run at full quality. They could also bundle in free subs to the ad-free version of Hulu with their service, making it much harder for anyone else to compete. Disney is a terrible company but god damn I hope they get Fox instead of Comcast or Verizon.

 

[Kalabalana]

Unless they expand their infrastructure to handle it (which we know they won't), creating "fast lanes" are like reassigning existing lanes for use as express pass lanes. There ends up being 6 lanes of traffic going through the 4 remaining toll stations while those who paid more can use the now empty, but more expensive, express pass lanes.

Exactly, the fingers tighten around the neck