South Korean telco SK Broadband and Netflix call a truce in network payment fight

South Korean telecom SK Broadband and Netflix have called a truce in their dispute over who should pay for the trillions of bits of video content flowing over mobile networks. SK Broadband brought legal action against Netflix in October 2021, claiming the vid-streaming services should cover the surging costs it incurred by …

[Pascal Monett]

SK Broadband is still being unreasonable

I've said this before and I'll say it again, why does SK Broadband think it has the right to single out Netflix and wring money out of it ?

Netflix pays for its broadband usage already. SK Broadband's clients pay for their usage.

If SK Boradband feels that it is not being paid enough, it should adjust its prices, not attack a specific website.

[Rahbut]

Re: SK Broadband is still being unreasonable

The telco provides access to content and bills accordingly.

The fact that a lot of that content ends up being with a single provider is coincidental - the telco either needs to provide access to it, or offer a product without access to it (which customers will avoid if they're after, in this case, Netflix).

If something is being sold metered (e.g. 100GB for £10) or unlimited for £20, it better be able to deliver it...

This feels like a symptom of a monopoly/lack of competition.

(all very reminiscent of the same problem in the US, and people banging on about net neutrality... telcos looking for other people to pay for their infrastructure)

[Jellied Eel]

Re: SK Broadband is still being unreasonable

I've said this before and I'll say it again, why does SK Broadband think it has the right to single out Netflix and wring money out of it ?

Easy-

SK claimed Netflix, which was responsible for five percent of South Korea's Q4 2020 traffic, owed $24 million in 2020 network usage fees.

But it's a decades old debate that is mostly unresolved. Netflix's solution doesn't really help because most of the costs come from the edges of the network. Streaming increases ISPs costs, but without some form of cost-sharing, the only way to cover those costs is to increase broadband fees. Bigger issue is congestion management and avoidance, ie terabytes of relatively delay insensitive traffic swamping more delay sensitive and causing packet loss. Solution to that are CoS and QoS, but that opens up the whole 'Net Neutrality' can of worms.

Curious to see what deal was done between SK and Netflix though, especially as Netflix has helped promote K-TV and cinema, who make content that's often waaaay more fun than the Hollywood garbage. Not sure how ownership works between SK content producers and SKT though because Korean business/industrial conglomerates are strange beasts.