I've read that. It was what I was thinking of when I wrote both the quotes in my comment. How remarkable. What I got from that piece is that - if Verizon are

I've read that. It was what I was thinking of when I wrote both the quotes in my comment. How remarkable. What I got from that piece is that - if Verizon are one of the companies mentioned - Verizon customers are requesting data from Netflix. Netflix have bought connectivity from Level3. Level3 have peering arrangements with Verizon for sockets that are dropping packets and over which Verizon is refusing to take part in a joint connection upgrade. Continually upgrading your connectivity in peering arrangements to cope with rising demand is, for nearly every other ISP in the world (outside certain monopoly markets in the US), completely standard practice as otherwise you die. And Verizon is refusing to do this unless Level3's own customers pay it money. Given this is a peering arrangement, now imagine it the other way around. Say Level3 had it's own TV business and was asking Verizon's broadband customers to cough up money to them on top of Netflix and Verizon, if they wanted Level3 to upgrade the network that Netflix are already paying for, for a usable connection to Netflix... Think about that for a bit, and then try and tell me that the whole affair doesn't look utterly hatstand.