Comcast's Phantom Toll Booth Casts Net Neutrality Benefits in Stark Light

So you're sitting at home, and you decide you want to watch something on Netflix. You've got Comcast (excuse me, Xfinity) broadband, streaming is a snap. You pay extra for that bandwidth, but it's worth it and now is one of those times. 

You'd be upset if Comcast looked over your usage and charged you $1 for streaming a movie from Netflix, wouldn't you? You're already paying them for bandwidth. And Comcast knows that.

So that's why they're charging the company that streams Netflix movies instead. Level 3, Inc., operates one of the internet backbones that Netflix uses to stream their content, and Comcast presented them with a "take it or leave it" offer on November 22. If they didn't pay up, Comcast subscribers wouldn't get Netflix, at least, not online.

"With this action, Comcast is preventing competing content from ever being delivered to Comcast’s subscribers at all, unless Comcast’s unilaterally determined toll is paid--even though Comcast’s subscribers requested the content," said Thomas Stortz, Level 3's Chief Legal Officer. 

"Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV company, has set up an Internet 'toll booth,' charging Level 3 whenever customers request content," sums Bloomberg. It may be a toll booth, but it's a phantom toll booth, at least to Comcast customers. If Level 3's costs go up and they charge Netflix more, and Netflix's costs go up, and they charge you more, that's...well, that's good for Comcast's On-Demand division, isn't it?

Comcast, for its part, argues that Level 3 is about to double the traffic on Comcast's network and wants to do so "for free." That's an odd way of looking at customer service. After all, Level 3 isn't sending traffic to Comcast's network arbitrarily--Comcast customers opted for a "lightning fast" broadband network precisely because they wanted to do things like stream content. 

All this casts into stark relief the sometimes hazily uptopian, feel-good rhetoric employed on behalf of what's called Net Neutrality. Here, Comcast's conflicts of interest, and dominant position as a broadband provider, have immediate real-world effects. The FCC is considering enacting new net neutrality rules as early as next month; it's clear that one way or the other, something's gotta give.