Level 3 wants conditions placed on Comcast-NBC merger

In the latest round of Level 3's (Nasdaq: LVLT) fight with cable giant Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), the backbone provider now wants the Department of Justice and the FCC to put a provision in Comcast's proposed acquisition of NBC Universal to enable "unfettered access" to any online content, reports Reuters.

What sparked Level 3's action is its ongoing protest to pay a toll fee for carrying online video traffic from the likes of Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) to Comcast's broadband customers.

Comcast contends that the ongoing "rise in Internet traffic" drove it to ask for the fee from Level 3 to carry third-party video and related content over its last mile HFC network to customers.  

In a letter outlining its opposition to Comcast's fee, Level 3 argued that the DoJ and the FCC put conditions on the Comcast-NBC merger.

One of the terms that Level 3 thinks that the FCC should set on the Comcast-NBC marriage is that the cable giant should interconnect with large backbone providers on "non-discriminatory, fair and reasonable terms," and that "Comcast may not utilize its dominant control over access to its subscribers in order to unfairly charge Internet backbone carriers for interconnection to its network."

For more:
- Reuters has this article

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