It's long been rumored that Apple is building its own content delivery network (CDN), and now it appears that the company is negotiating paid interconnection deals with "some of the largest ISPs in the US" in order to deliver Apple content to consumers.

Dan Rayburn, an analyst with extensive contacts in the CDN and Internet service provider industries, reported on Apple's latest moves today. Apple has not responded to a request for comment from Ars.

"In February I blogged about a new group formed inside of Apple last year, tasked with building out their own CDN to deliver Apple software updates, apps and other Apple related content," Rayburn wrote. "Since my post, Apple has been very busy with their build-out deploying a lot of boxes running Apache Traffic Server and buying a ton of transit, co-location, wavelengths and other infrastructure services. Their CDN is quickly growing, and it won’t be long before we start seeing a portion of their content getting delivered from their new CDN."

Apple has historically relied on CDN companies like Akamai and Level 3 to "deliver Apple related content including apps, iTunes video, and software updates for their iOS and OS X platforms," Rayburn noted in February.

Apple wouldn't be the first company to build its own CDN for delivering just its own content. Netflix did so, and while it was able to negotiate unpaid interconnection deals with some ISPs, others refused to give Netflix free connections. Netflix ended up paying Verizon and Comcast to get a smoother path to those ISPs' customers.

Rayburn, who has consistently criticized Netflix for demanding free peering, contrasted Netflix's complaints with Apple's quiet negotiating approach. "As part of their build-out, Apple is currently negotiating paid interconnection deals with some of the largest ISPs in the US," Rayburn wrote today. "I’m not going to disclose which ISPs they are talking to and what deals they have already done, but it’s interesting to note that with all the talk lately of net neutrality, peering and interconnect relationships, Apple isn’t out in the market making any complaints."

According to Rayburn, "Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Pandora, Ebay, and other content owners that have already built out their own CDNs" are also paying ISPs for interconnection.

While Apple typically takes up only 2 percent of peak Internet traffic compared to Netflix's 34 percent, Apple does occasionally flood the Internet with Netflix-scale traffic with iOS updates sent to iPhones and iPads.

"Part of Apple’s reasoning for building their own CDN is because of performance issues with iCloud, with Apple wanting to have more control over the end-user experience," Rayburn wrote. "Apple already controls the hardware, the OS, and the iTunes/App store platforms."

Netflix is still negotiating interconnection deals with some ISPs. Netflix was able to get free connections to its Open Connect content delivery network from Frontier, British Telecom, TDC, Clearwire, GVT, Telus, Bell Canada, Virgin, Cablevision, Google Fiber, Telmex, RCN, and others. Notable holdouts besides Verizon and Comcast included AT&T and Time Warner Cable. As a result, Netflix video has traveled through congested links, degrading performance of Netflix and other Internet traffic. The connections to Verizon and Comcast are clearing up as a result of the new paid interconnection deals, but Netflix traffic has been particularly bad lately on AT&T.

Netflix has asked the FCC to require ISPs to offer free peering, but instead the commission appears set to issue net neutrality rules that don't regulate peering and also let ISPs sell "fast lanes" over the network's last mile.