A day after a technology service provider for Netflix accused Comcast of charging tolls to deliver movies and TV shows through its network, the Federal Communications Commission began hearing about the matter from all sides.
After calling FCC Wireline Competition Bureau chief Sharon Gillett to address accusations made earlier in the day by Level 3 Communications, Comcast officials sent her a five-page letter, summarizing that conversation and further outlining their position.
Also read: Netflix Partner: Comcast Charging Toll for Online Video Deliveries
Level 3, which provides technology services to Netflix to help it stream movies over the internet, accused Comcast of violating net-neutrality etiquette by charging "tolls" to deliver movies and TV shows via its network.
Comcast has called the accusation poppycock, accusing Level 3 of exploitively tying a simple network-infrastructure-usage negotiation into the broader open-network issue. That's, of course, a sensitive topic for the nation's top broadband services provider as it seeks to gain federal approval for its $30 billion merger with NBC Universal.
In its letter to the FCC, Comcast officials wrote, "Despite Level 3's effort to portray its dispute with Comcast as being about an 'open Internet,' it is nothing but a good old-fashioned commercial peering dispute, the kind of that Level 3 has found itself in before."
Separately, California Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters -- a vocal critic of the Comcast/NBCU merger, wrote her own letter to the FCC, urging organization chairman Julius Genachowski to "carefully review" Level 3's allegations.
Here's her letter:
Congresswoman Waters Raises More Questions with FCC over Comcast-NBC Merger
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) sent the following letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski today, raising more questions about the Comcast-NBC merger after several allegations criticizing Comcast's cable and online operations recently surfaced:
November 30, 2010
Julius Genachowski
Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
445 Twelfth Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554
Dear Chairman Genachowski,
As a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, I write to once again convey my ongoing concerns about the impact the Comcast-NBC merger could have on consumers and competition within the already heavily-consolidated media industry. If Cablevision’s recent retransmission dispute with News Corporation (News Corp.) over the fees it pays the media conglomerate were not compelling enough, then three recent direct allegations against Comcast Corporation’s online and cable operations should warrant the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) close examination. Although the Commission’s 180-day merger review deadline passed on November 25th, I urge the FCC to carefully review these new allegations, along with the voluminous record of the current merger proceeding, and ensure that if the Comcast-NBC combination is approved, it is conditioned upon substantive commitments that will promote media diversity, competition, and consumer protections.
First, the New York Times reported this week that Comcast Corporation – which has its own on-demand content streaming and pay-per-view movie services – imposed a recurring fee on Level 3 Communications (the backend service provider that streams Netflix movies to online consumers) in exchange for allowing the company to continue streaming Netflix content to consumers without service disruption.
