Monday, April 16, 2012

Netflix CEO: "Comcast no longer following net neutrality principles"

 
Recently, Comcast said that watching XFINITY TV directly on the Xbox 360 will not use data from XFINITY Internet monthly data usage allowance:

"similar to traditional cable television service that is delivered to the set-top box, this content doesn’t count toward our data usage threshold. The Xbox 360 running our XFINITY TV app essentially acts as an additional cable box for your existing cable service, and our data usage threshold does not apply" nevertheless "you must have a broadband Internet connection". 
  
Other applications? watching HBOGO directly on Xbox 360 will use data from the monthly broadband data usage allowance - "..because the video is being delivered over the public Internet. All broadband data that travels over the public Internet on our Xfinity Internet service counts against a customer’s data usage threshold, regardless of the source. For example, all Internet-based video streaming and download services, including XfinityTV.com, the Xfinity TV app and nbc.com, are included in the calculation of monthly usage" 

see "FAQs: Xbox 360" - here.

OTT players were not happy. One example is a recent message from Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings (pictured), to its 120,538 Facebook followers (here) :

"Comcast no longer following net neutrality principles. 

Comcast should apply caps equally, or not at all.

I spent the weekend enjoying four good internet video apps on my Xbox: Netflix, HBO GO, Xfinity, and Hulu.

When I watch video on my Xbox from three of these four apps, it counts against my Comcast internet cap. When I watch through Comcast’s Xfinity app, however, it does not count against my Comcast internet cap.

For example, if I watch last night’s SNL episode on my Xbox through the Hulu app, it eats up about one gigabyte of my cap, but if I watch that same episode through the Xfinity Xbox app, it doesn’t use up my cap at all.

The same device, the same IP address, the same wifi, the same internet connection, but totally different cap treatment.

In what way is this neutral?"







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