"If you pay for (say) a DS3 line, there's an implicit assumption that you are not going to be pumping 44.736 Mbit/s through it 24/7. "
This may be the cases for ISP-ISP connections, but every transit circuit I've ever purchased as an end-user has two elements, a Non Reccurring Charge (NRC) to set up the connection, and then a monthly recurring charge (MRC) consisting of, a port speed, and a 95th percentile metered usage charge.
e.g. I might get a gigabit port set up for an up front $5000 NRC, and then a 24 month contract for $2000/month port speed, and then pay $5/megabit @95th percentile of 5 minute averages sampled over a month.
The ISP samples the usage of my port every 5 minutes, (8640 samples in a 30 day month), drops the top 5% (432 samples), and then charges me the cost of the next sample (sample #8208) - If the sampled speed at #8208 was 1 Gigabit, and sample #8207 was 0 kilobits, then I am still charged $2000/month + 1000 * $5 = $7000/MRC for that month.
Cogent has always had a reputation in the industry for being the cut-rate player (to the point of other ISPs just dropping them as peering connections, resulting in companies literally not being able to communicate with their customers) - Netflix was trying to rely on Cogent to send data to their customers, presumably because they were charging significantly less than "Tier-1" transit-providers, and finally came to the realization that yes, you do get what you pay for.
None of this surprises me, and none of it appears relevant to the conversation regarding Net-Neutrality - this is a peering discussion, pure and simple.
That's one way to look at it. The reason there even is such a thing as a cut-rate service like Cogent is that ISPs like Comcast have a captive audience and can increase their transit fees with impunity. The CDNs that go along with that extortion are the ones that don't get labeled "cut-rate."
This may be the cases for ISP-ISP connections, but every transit circuit I've ever purchased as an end-user has two elements, a Non Reccurring Charge (NRC) to set up the connection, and then a monthly recurring charge (MRC) consisting of, a port speed, and a 95th percentile metered usage charge.
e.g. I might get a gigabit port set up for an up front $5000 NRC, and then a 24 month contract for $2000/month port speed, and then pay $5/megabit @95th percentile of 5 minute averages sampled over a month.
The ISP samples the usage of my port every 5 minutes, (8640 samples in a 30 day month), drops the top 5% (432 samples), and then charges me the cost of the next sample (sample #8208) - If the sampled speed at #8208 was 1 Gigabit, and sample #8207 was 0 kilobits, then I am still charged $2000/month + 1000 * $5 = $7000/MRC for that month.
Cogent has always had a reputation in the industry for being the cut-rate player (to the point of other ISPs just dropping them as peering connections, resulting in companies literally not being able to communicate with their customers) - Netflix was trying to rely on Cogent to send data to their customers, presumably because they were charging significantly less than "Tier-1" transit-providers, and finally came to the realization that yes, you do get what you pay for.
None of this surprises me, and none of it appears relevant to the conversation regarding Net-Neutrality - this is a peering discussion, pure and simple.