Cogent Says Some ISPs Not Doing Enough To Cut 'Massive Congestion'
Some ISPs aren't doing enough to reduce "massive congestion" between them and Cogent, and if that doesn't change soon, they may face FCC net neutrality complaints threatened by the backbone provider (see 1504060026), CEO Dave Schaeffer said in an interview Friday. Verizon likely won't face such a complaint at the points where that telco's network and Cogent's interconnect, because the two agreed to an interconnection deal, he said. While some cable operators including Charter and Cox never had congestion with Cogent, AT&T, CenturyLink and Time Warner Cable do and that affects those broadband providers' residential customers, Schaeffer said.
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Such congestion can affect the quality of video streaming and other services, Cogent contends. The problems AT&T broadband customers experienced because of congestion affected Netflix content until the streaming video provider paid the telco in a peering deal, said Schaeffer and a filing posted Friday in docket 14-90. Cogent wants FCC conditions on AT&T's buy of DirecTV. Cogent customers include Netflix, Schaeffer said. If Cogent files an FCC complaint, it reflects the company's quest to get free interconnection, said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation analyst Doug Brake.
Netflix generally doesn't think "ISPs should be charging Netflix or others for Internet access consumers already pay for," said a spokeswoman. "It's akin to FedEx charging the sender and the receiver for the same package." She had no comment on Cogent.
Some of February's net neutrality order is effective June 12, according to an FCC notice in the Federal Register, so Schaeffer said ISPs still have time to comply with rules on interconnection. He said Comcast has been "turning up ports" where data traffic is exchanged between it and Cogent, as the cable operator sought approval to buy TWC. Even though regulatory concern scotched that deal, Comcast at its current rate would soon resolve the remaining congestion, Schaeffer said. Comcast declined to comment.
Potentially violating the net neutrality order through massive congestion are AT&T and TWC, which "have not been good actors, have not been really very forthcoming" on the issue as it affects residential broadband subscribers, Schaeffer said. CenturyLink has been "willing and active" to ensure sufficient capacity for the telco's business customers, but the telco has "been reluctant to make sure there is adequate connectivity for the residential customers," he said. Those companies had no comment.
Cogent's and Verizon's long-term interconnection deal for their public IP networks provides more ports for each company, so "the interconnection point will not become a choke point," Schaeffer said. He wouldn't say if money is changing hands, other than "we’re not paying anyone for peering or connectivity.” The "bilateral commercial interconnection agreement" ensures "customers on the two networks can continue to exchange data in an effective and efficient manner," the companies each said in similar news releases Friday (see here and here). They said the deal lets them "enjoy high-performance speeds to enable new, high-bandwidth applications."
Also in the deal is Verizon's content delivery network, the companies said. Cogent will provide more ports for Verizon's CDN to peer with Cogent customers, while the backbone will get more ports for its customers' traffic with Verizon, Schaeffer said. Verizon had no comment.
Schaeffer hopes his company doesn't need to complain about any ISPs, and "that every mass-market ISP ends up complying" with the net neutrality order, he said. "We hope everybody resolves it," as Verizon did with the new deal, he said. "If they don’t, we will be in front of the FCC Enforcement Bureau to provide the objective engineering data showing the abuse of market power and the congestion that these terminating monopolies have been doing and in some cases are continuing to do." Level 3's agreement with Verizon and Cogent's will fix the problem at that telco, said Schaeffer. ISPs "are negotiating business agreements that allow exchange of Internet traffic in a scalable, resilient and reliable manner," said an April 23 Level 3 and Verizon news release with some similar wording as the Cogent and Verizon releases.
Level 3 is pleased Verizon is signing such deals, said General Counsel Michael Mooney in a written statement Friday. "We continue to work with our industry partners on mutually beneficial agreements, but if we see that ISPs are not acting in the spirit of the Open Internet Order, we will bring it to the FCC's attention. That would include situations where ISPs refuse to augment congested interconnection links."
Cogent and others' desire for free interconnection "regardless of radical imbalances in traffic ratios is bad economics, bad policy, runs counter to longstanding industry norms, and is obviously self-interested," said ITIF's Brake. He said interconnection deals including Friday's indicate "there is nothing unjust or unreasonable about these transactions."