NetEqualizer News Blog

By Art Reisman, CTO APconnections (www.netequalizer.com)

I just got a note from a customer, a University, that their ISP is offering them 200 megabit internet at fixed price. The kicker is, they can also have access to a 1 gigabit feed specifically for YouTube at no extra cost.  The only explanation for this is that their upstream ISP has an extensive in-network YouTube cache. I am just kicking myself for not seeing this coming!

I was well-aware that many of the larger ISPs cached NetFlix and YouTube on a large scale, but this is the first I have heard of a bandwidth provider offering a special reduced rate for YouTube to a customer downstream. I am just mad at myself for not predicting this type of offer and hearing about it from a third party.

As for the NetEqualizer, we have already made adjustments in our licensing for this differential traffic to come through at no extra charge beyond your regular license level, in this case 200 megabits. So if for example, you have a 350 megabit license, but have access to a 1Gbps YouTube feed, you will pay for a 350 megabit license, not 1Gbps.  We will not charge you for the overage while accessing YouTube.