Report: Apple In Paid Interconnection Talks

Following a path already blazed by Netflix and other online content providers, Apple is negotiating paid interconnection agreements “with some of the largest ISPs in the U.S,” Dan Rayburn, the executive VP for StreamingMedia.com and a principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, reported Tuesday in this blog post.

Rayburn didn’t identify the ISPs by name, but said the talks are heating up as Apple’s home-grown content delivery network grows rapidly. “[I]t won’t be long before we see start seeing a portion of their content getting delivered from their new CDN,” he wrote, noting his earlier report from February that Apple had formed a new group tasked with the new CDN effort to handle software updates, apps and other Apple-related content.

Apple has not responded to requests for comment, but the report comes as Netflix forges, albeit reluctantly, new paid interconnection deals with Comcast and, more recently, with Verizon Communications, with similar talks underway with AT&T.

For the full story go to Multichannel.com.