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Because until recently, we had defacto NN via gentlemen's agreement. ISPs no longer want to adhere to that agreement.
by drspacemonkey 9y ago
Because until recently, we had defacto NN via gentlemen's agreement. ISPs no longer want to adhere to that agreement.
- Jtsummers 9y agoIt's not just that they don't want to. Many of them probably never wanted to. It's the scale. Previously, you had a lot more ISPs, even more operating in the same physical area when we had dial-up. They needed to cooperate. Their customers' desired data wasn't on their network, and they were barely more than an interlink (services offered: dial-up, email, custom home page at isp.net/~user). If they didn't abide by peering arrangements businesses and customers would have been unable to communicate, making the ISPs unable to fulfill their purchases. There are now far fewer ISPs and they have far more services and customers. They're in a position, due to the number of customers they have to bargain with, to demand quite a bit from other ISPs and content/service providers. Failing to peer with Comcast could mean losing half of all US broadband customers. So when they demand $$, you're in a bind and almost have to pay, or suffer lower QoS as a result.