True. But I would assume that the contract is largely a pay per usage or at least expected usage. So if they just make an estimate of how many Verizon customers

True. But I would assume that the contract is largely a pay per usage or at least expected usage. So if they just make an estimate of how many Verizon customers they have and buy that block from someone else than Level 3. Then route all that traffic through the other provider, while keep using Level 3 for the majority of their traffic. Or perhaps they could ask Level 3 (who are clearly pissed at Verizon) to make the deal for them. These edge providers already have business with each other (peering), so it should be relatively simple for Level 3 to purchase some bandwidth from another large provider and then route some of their packets (e.g. the Netflix ones) through there. In any case, the edge providers have good reason to collaborate on thwarting Verizon on this, so why don't they?