Level 3 'Clarifies' Position On Comcast Fees - Consumer Affairs

Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

December 6, 2010
In case there was any confusion about its position on Comcast's new fees, Level 3 Communications has issued another statement on the controversy.

The issue first surfaced last week when Level 3 complained that Comcast has announced its intention to levy ongoing fees for delivering content to Comcast, such as movies, that Comcast's subscribers have requested. Level 3 is a major supplier of streaming technology for NetFlix, which delivers video content via the Internet.

Comcast has countered that Level 3 is trying to gain an unfair advantage over competitors by using Comcast's network to deliver content without paying for it.

"Comcast's characterization could not be more misleading," Level 3 said in a statement.  "What is truly at stake is whether consumers should have unfettered access to all the content on the Internet without regard to whether that content happens to be owned or packaged by Comcast."

Supporters of the concept of Net neutrality have seized on the controversy as an illustration of why the policy is needed. They say consumers will end up paying more for some content if network providers are able to discriminate among content providers. Opponents, on the other hand, say it perfectly illustrates why Net neutrality is unfair to network operators.

Level 3 says the disagreement is not a "peering dispute,†as Comcast has characterized it.

"At issue is a fundamental interconnection disagreement between Comcast, as a provider of local high speed Internet access to consumers who pay Comcast for access to content, and Level 3, which delivers content to residential broadband access providers like Comcast in response to consumer requests,†the company said.

Unlike "peering" in the Internet backbone, where competition abounds and prices have been declining steadily, Level 3 said, Internet carriers that have content requested by Comcast subscribers have no choice but to exchange traffic with Comcast.

"Comcast is using this dominant position to demand payment for traffic delivered at its customers' requests. You simply cannot "route around" Comcast to provide requested content to Comcast's subscribers," Level 3 said.

Comcast says the fees it charges are commonplace and standard within the industry. Level 3 says that's not the case.

"No other broadband access provider in the U.S. is now charging Level 3 the type of fees that Comcast is charging," the company said. "It is Comcast that seeks to change the common approach, changing the rules of the game in an unreasonable and discriminatory manner."

The controversy began last month with NetFlix retained Level 3 to provide the bulk of the streaming services needed to send movies to subscribers. Level 3 asked Comcast and other Internet Service Providers to give it more access to their networks so they could handled the expected increase in traffic from NetFlix.

When Level 3 asked Comcast for new interconnection ports to its network, it didn't expect to pay anything for that since it said it was providing content requested by Comcast customers. Comcast, while also sells video content to its subscribers, views it as unfair competition, and says paying a fee to deliver content over its network is reasonable.

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Police: Usfiya boy, 14, admits to starting Carmel fire - Jerusalem Post

A 14-year-old resident of Usfiya was arrested on Monday on suspicion of hurling a charcoal from a water-pipe into a forest clearing near Usfiya on Thursday morning, witnessing the ignition of a large fire, and fleeing the scene. Police suspect the boy's actions directly led to the Carmel forest inferno.

The youth confessed to the suspicions against him and reenacted his alleged actions on Monday, police added.

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After witnessing the flames grow out of control, the youth became panicked, "ran back to his school [in Usfiya], and did not report the fire to anyone," police said.

The youth will appear before the Haifa Magistrate's Court on Tuesday morning for a remand hearing.

Hof police spokesman Mor Inbar told The Jerusalem Post that four additional Usfiya youths were questioned in recent days in connection with the water-pipe incident.

They included two brothers aged 16 and 14 who were arrested on Sunday, and who were released by the Haifa District Court on Monday after Judge Avraham Elikim accepted an appeal by attorneys representing the brothers against a decision by the Haifa Magistrate's Court to keep them in custody until Wednesday.

Judge Elikim noted that police suspect the minors of causing death through criminal negligence, but added that the suspects' young age represented an alleviating factor in the suspicions against them. "There is no disputing the trauma caused by the fires to many people, but we should not place a national disaster on the shoulders of two minors," Judge Elikim said during his decision on Monday.

Two additional minors were detained for questioning - though not arrested - by officers from the Hof police sub-district's central unit on Monday and released, before the 14-year-old suspect was arrested.
Meanwhile, Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a total of four suspects around the country have been arrested in recent days on suspicion of deliberately setting off smaller fires. Two suspects were arrested in the Jerusalem area and two more were arrested in Acre on suspicion of arson attacks.

Rosenfeld said "over 20 smaller fires around the country" that broke out since Thursday were suspected acts of arson. All of the smaller fires were put out by firefighters and did not cause injury.
A day after the last of the dead from the Prisons Service members who were burned to death in their bus near Kibbutz Bet Oren were buried, police said a full examination was underway to determine what could be learned from the tragedy. However, a police source added that no decision had yet been made about an investigations committee.

According to police, the bus, driven by 48-year-old David Navon - who was posthumously recruited into the Prison Service on Monday - attempted to turn around on the narrow single-lane highway connecting Bet Oren Junction to Atlit, after screeching to a halt in front of a wall of fire.

As the flames engulfed the vehicle from both directions, desperate IPS staff members attempted to flee the bus, and ran straight into the flames. The bus was accompanied by police cars containing Lior Boker, Itzik Melina, and Haifa police chief Ahuva Tomer, all whom died of burns related injuries.

Parents of two victims from the Prison Service - Roee Biton and Hagai Jerno, came forward on Monday to accuse the authorities of failing to prepare staff members with sending them on a mission to evacuate the Damon prison without means to defend themselves against a fire.

The families told Ynet said they did not blame the IPS for the tragedy, but rather "those who were responsible for putting out the fires, evacuating homes, and closing off roads."

A police source added, "Obviously, this tragedy will be examined from all directions, from the intelligence to the operational level. Lessons will be learned. An incident of this scale cannot go by without being examined in detail."

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Tea Party group says Palin should lead GOP - USA Today

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