Offering free peering to content providers is a...

Offering free peering to content providers is a “win-win-win situation,” said Google Fiber Director-Network Engineering Jeffrey Burgan in a blog post Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1jH3aEP). Giving companies like Netflix and Akamai free access to space and power in Google’s facilities lets providers “deliver really high-quality streaming video to their customers,” Burgan said. It lets Google save money -- “it’s easier to transport video traffic from a local server than it is to transport it thousands of miles.” And it’s good for Google Fiber customers, who get “the fastest, most direct route” to content. Offering free peering arrangements helps user-requested video to steer clear of potential congestion elsewhere in the network, Burgan said. “Since people usually only stream one video at a time, video traffic doesn’t bog down or change the way we manage our network in any meaningful way -- so why not help enable it?"