ISP Calls for Broadband Infra Payments? Hyperscalers Already Pay for Traffic Asymmetries

Virtually lost in all the discussion of payments by a few hyperscale app providers to ISPs based on asymmetrical traffic flows is the reality that ISPs and content domains already have negotiated interconnection agreements that account for such asymmetrical traffic flows.

Though the actual details of interconnection agreements between some internet domains with others are not generally easy to estimate, observers believe most hyperscale app providers already are paying internet service provider domains for asymmetrical traffic flows. 

Company	Estimated Yearly Interconnection Payments (US$)
Meta	300 million to 800 million
Alphabet	200 million to 700 million
Netflix	100 million to 300 million
Amazon	75 million to 200 million
Microsoft	50 million to 100 milliion
Apple	25 million

So when ISPs say they need such payments, what they really are arguing is that they should be paid more. 

Business relationships in any value chain are subject to market forces, of course. There is no ethical reason why commercial agreements between entities “must” take any particular magnitude. 

But it is fairly clear that the present ISP desire for support of their home broadband and mobile infrastructures is a case of “wanting more money” for traffic exchanges that already have negotiated agreements in place.