Comment Re:It's not arrogant, it's correct. (Score 1) 466
Because internet traffic is internet traffic is internet traffic. It doesn't matter if that traffic is Netflix, Bittorrent, email, youtube, World of Warcraft, etc.
But this particular kind of use of it absolutely dwarfs everything else. Streaming media is a huge payload.
And, come on now, tell the whole story. For AT&T to be able to deliver Netflix's data all the way to the home routers of their customers, they also have to maintain arrangements with other carriers to handle that data as it comes in from Netflix. Those peering arrangements are not free, just like maintaining that last mile to their end user customers isn't free.
Meanwhile, the guy who buys bandwidth and uses it for a less Netflix/YouTube-centric array of connections absolutely is going to be asked to contribute to his neighbor's entertainment costs if the GP has his way and AT&T raises their rates across the board to deal with the behavior of a subset of users and remote content sources.