Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. (credit: JD Lasica)
Since Netflix's admission last week that it throttles video on most mobile networks to help customers avoid data cap overage charges, Internet service providers and anti-net neutrality think tanks have been blasting the online video provider. Netflix is a hypocrite because it throttles its own video streams even as it supports net neutrality rules that prevent ISPs from throttling traffic that passes over their networks, they claim. Even AT&T, which has throttled its own unlimited data users for years and tried to avoid any punishment for doing so, said it is "outraged" by Netflix's actions.
While most ISPs want the elimination of the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules, they generally are not demanding that new rules be applied to Netflix. But there is an exception. The American Cable Association, a cable lobby group that represents more than 900 small and medium-sized companies, has called on the FCC to consider writing new rules that apply to Netflix and similar online content providers ("edge providers" in industry parlance).
The FCC's "approach to Net Neutrality is horribly one-sided and unfair because it leaves consumers unprotected from the actions of edge providers that block and throttle lawful traffic," the ACA said Friday. Netflix's confession of throttling provides "further evidence" that consumers are being harmed, the group claimed.
Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments
No comments:
Post a Comment