Level 3: Comcast Charging For Local Access, Not Peering

Level 3 Communications objected to Comcast asking for payment for local interconnections to the cable operator's network -- which is a separate issue from backbone peering relationships, according to company president and COO Jeff Storey.

"We carry Netflix traffic or other traffic deep into the Comcast network, and we hand it off to them generally at the last point we can," Storey said. "We respond to that request [for content by Comcast's subscribers] by handing it off at the last possible minute, not the first possible minute." Level 3 last week griped that Comcast was erecting a "toll booth" on the Internet by demanding payment to deliver additional traffic, after Level 3 landed a contract as a primary content delivery network for Netflix. Level 3 accused Comcast of violating network neutrality principles. In response, the cable operator said Level 3 was asking to dump twice the amount of traffic on its network without paying customary CDN fees. Storey said the crux of the dispute was that Comcast now wants to charge for access at the local network level. "If I were handing off traffic to Comcast in New York and expecting them to deliver it in San Diego, I would expect to pay for that," Storey said. "But that's not what we're doing. We spent billions of dollars to get into this business and expect to use that infrastructure in an efficient way."