Network operator Level 3, which has asked the FCC to protect it from "arbitrary access charges" that ISPs want in exchange for accepting Internet traffic, today claimed that six consumer broadband providers have allowed a state of "permanent congestion" by refusing to upgrade peering connections for the past year.

Level 3 and Cogent, another network operator, have been involved in disputes with ISPs over whether they should pay for the right to send them traffic. ISPs have demanded payment in exchange for accepting streaming video and other data that is passed from the network providers to ISPs and eventually to consumers.

When the interconnections aren't upgraded, it can lead to congestion and dropped packets, as we wrote previously regarding a dispute between Cogent and Verizon. In a blog post today, Level 3 VP Mark Taylor wrote:

A port that is on average utilized at 90 percent will be saturated, dropping packets, for several hours a day. We have congested ports saturated to those levels with 12 of our 51 peers. Six of those 12 have a single congested port, and we are both (Level 3 and our peer) in the process of making upgrades—this is business as usual and happens occasionally as traffic swings around the Internet as customers change providers. That leaves the remaining six peers with congestion on almost all of the interconnect ports between us. Congestion that is permanent, has been in place for well over a year and where our peer refuses to augment capacity. They are deliberately harming the service they deliver to their paying customers. They are not allowing us to fulfill the requests their customers make for content. Five of those congested peers are in the United States and one is in Europe. There are none in any other part of the world. All six are large Broadband consumer networks with a dominant or exclusive market share in their local market. In countries or markets where consumers have multiple Broadband choices (like the UK) there are no congested peers.

Taylor didn't name these companies and Level 3 hasn't answered our request for more information. Comcast may not be one of them, as Level 3 grudgingly agreed to pay Comcast after a dispute over Netflix traffic that began in late 2010.

AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable are among the ISPs that have warred with Netflix, transit providers that carry Netflix and other traffic, or both. And Level 3 did point the finger at AT&T in a previous post in March

Level 3 today said it has "settlement-free" agreements with 48 of its 51 peers, meaning they exchange traffic without any money changing hands. The company is interconnected with those 51 peers "in 45 cities through over 1,360 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports (plus a few smaller ports)."

"In one case, a peer pays us for access to a number of routes in a region where their network doesn’t go; a choice they made rather than buying Internet Services from another party," Taylor wrote.

The company that pays Level 3 is likely Cogent.

Although Netflix is now paying Comcast and Verizon for direct connections to their networks, Level 3 still carries "some Netflix traffic," a Level 3 spokesperson told Ars.