Most of that is a judgement call, and I won't argue.
But the network neutrality thing is very much real. They enforce a cap on general traffic, but lift it for partner streaming. That's a discount. The analysis merely showed that the packets were distinctly labeled for the routers, and thus they were (plausibly, technically) within the letter of network neutrality. They were quite clearly violating the spirit.
They do the same thing for PPV. It makes no difference that it's TCP/IP vs some other protocol. Those packets do not flow over your internet connection, they flow over the dedicated wires comcast runs to the customer specific for video.
They don't prioritize it over other traffic - it uses a totally different channel which you pay extra to get. It's exactly what they should be doing.
> The analysis merely showed that the packets were distinctly labeled for the routers
No, that's not correct. The packets used a different DOCSIS channel, after the cable modem the packets were not special.
If the packets went over your regular connection AND were prioritized, then that would be a violation. Anything else is not a violation, not the letter, not the spirit.
Comcast is a video provider, I bought some video and they used their wires to provide it to me. Other providers don't have the same access to the customer, but that's because they have no wires to the customer.
For network neutrality, other providers should have the same internet access as the customer as comcast, but this service doesn't use your internet connection, so network neutrality simply doesn't apply.
Do you have a link for that analysis (I'm too lazy to check)? I swear you're wrong on that. I quite clearly remember that the packets were tagged with QoS fields on the local ethernet. Whether they go over a different provisioned channel or not isn't really the point. Clearly they're taking hardware they installed for general internet service and repurposing it for a private, privileged traffic. That traffic is "internet" traffic on teh local network, and it's "internet" traffic at the backend (where it's sourced from Xfinity partners networks over lines that I'm 100% sure aren't dedicated). How can you possibly not feel that this is a violation of the spirit of net neutrality?
But the network neutrality thing is very much real. They enforce a cap on general traffic, but lift it for partner streaming. That's a discount. The analysis merely showed that the packets were distinctly labeled for the routers, and thus they were (plausibly, technically) within the letter of network neutrality. They were quite clearly violating the spirit.