SK Broadband, wholly owned by South Korea’s largest mobile carrier SK Telecom, thinks Netflix should pay a congestion charge for hit shows like the streaming service's recently released "Squid Game." The company says the traffic that Netflix generates on its network has surged to 1.2tn bits of data processed per second as of September 2021, the month of Squid Game’s release, a 24-fold increase over three years. It has had to upgrade its network twice to accommodate the traffic surge caused by the show. Netflix sees those fees as contrary to its stance on net neutrality, which requires internet service providers to treat all content on their networks equally. It has argued that SK Broadband is calling for double billing, with subscribers paying for an internet connection via their Netflix subscription as well as a direct fee for internet service. It took its own legal action against SK Broadband over the charges in 2020. A district court dismissed Netflix’s claim in June 2021 and ruled it must pay outstanding fees to SK Broadband. Netflix has appealed against the ruling. Should Netflix lose its case against SK Broadband, the estimated fees of $84 million are unlikely to leave a dent in its bottom line. But it opens the door for global internet providers to consider charging streaming companies for their heavy bandwidth loads. This could mean a rise in prices for everyone as upgrade costs are spread across subscribers as a whole and not just corporations. Subscription costs of video streaming services could rise accordingly. Both SK Broadband’s lawsuit and Netflix’s hearing are scheduled for December 2021.

[June Yoon is a Lex writer for the Financial Times.]

This study, commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and led by a researcher from Harvard Business School, assesses the impact of the internet on US gross domestic product (GDP). Key findings:

• The internet economy grew seven times faster than the total US economy during the past four years, and now accounts for 12 percent of the US GDP.
• More than 17 million jobs in the US were generated by the commercial internet, 7 million more than four years ago.
• More internet jobs, 38 percent, were created by small firms and self-employed individuals than by the largest internet companies, which generated 34 percent.
• There are 200,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the online creator economy.
• Every congressional district depends on internet-dependent jobs; Seven congressional districts have at least 10 percent of their residents working directly in the internet ecosystem, accounting for 9 percent of total US internet employment.

The Pittsburgh region’s longest-serving congressman is stepping down at the end of his term in 2022. Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Mike Doyle (D-PA) says it’s time for a generational change. With 27 years in the House of Representatives, Doyle says he’s ready to retire next year when he turns 69. “I believe the time has come to pass the torch to the next generation,” said Doyle at a press conference Monday afternoon. The state’s senior congressman says he knew he could win another term, but the creation of a new congressional district required through reapportionment made this the right time for new leadership. “The redistricting will change this district and most likely push part of it outside Allegheny County. This is a good transition time for a new member to start in a newly drawn district,” he said. Doyle estimates he delivered over a billion federal dollars to the region from technology, robotics and artificial intelligence to roads, bridges and the Civic Arena project reuniting the Hill District.