1st hearing in progress… The difference between the two sides is clear
Netflix “Only SKB requires network usage fee… Solved with OCA”
SKB “There is no OCA effect… “It’s difficult to afford the investment.”
Netflix net fee
The second round of a legal battle between Netflix, a global online video service dinosaur and SK Broadband, a domestic telecommunication company, has begun in earnest. As expected, Netflix claims that the Open Connect appliance using its own technology can have an effect equivalent to paying the network usage fee, and emphasized that using this can solve the problem. On the other hand, SK Broadband countered that using OCA did not have much effect, and that it reached a point where it could not afford the cost of facility investment due to increased traffic.
On the 16th, the Civil Division 19-1 of the Seoul High Court held the first hearing of the appeal of Netflixs debt confirmation lawsuit against SK Broadband.
Netflix claimed, “SK Broadband is shifting the responsibility of ISPs and the content delivery obligations promised to consumers to CPs.”
On this day, Netflix argued that it could reduce traffic with OCA, a technology developed by itself, and emphasized its position that it could not pay ‘network fee’.
OCA is Netflixs content delivery network. CDN improves efficiency by distributing it to multiple locations when the physical distance between the content providers central server and users is long.
According to Netflix, there are currently over 7,200 ISPs and OCA connections around the world. The company explains that by using OCA, Netflix traffic can be reduced by up to 100%. Dean Garfield, vice president of policy at Netflix, who visited Korea at the end of last year, also argued that “in 2020, telecommunication companies saved US$1.2 billion through OCA.”
Based on this, Netflix argued that the ‘bill and keep’ method could be applied. Bill and keep is a settlement method between ISPs that operate the network, and it refers to the ‘mutual no-settlement’ method. Netflix explains that no ISP in the world is required to pay network usage fees like SK Broadband.
Although Netflix provides OCA for free, SK Broadband claims that it is refusing to do so, while saying that, like domestic and foreign ISPs, if OCA is installed within the SK Broadband network, the traffic problem can be easily solved.
On the other hand, SK Broadband countered that installing OCA would not have much effect. He said that a large amount of traffic is coming in through OCA, and the content traffic has exploded 40 times in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection, making it impossible to afford facility investment.
Meanwhile, the next hearing date for both sides is scheduled for May 18.
