Netflix Deals With Verizon, Comcast Reshaping Net Neutrality Debate

FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler’s new proposed “open internet” rules may not even be the biggest threat to net neutrality, a report from Vox claims. Wheeler’s rules will create a “fast lane,” guaranteeing faster service for companies willing to pay more. But Netflix’s recent deals with Comcast and Verizon for private connections, which the company made under protest, “amounts to a new, private highway just for Netflix traffic,” something entirely outside the existing regulatory framework, and outside of Wheeler’s new proposed rules as well. Those kinds of deals can be made in the U.S. because there are so few Internet service providers, and such connections will have a huge influence on the future of the Internet. Unless net neutrality advocates realign their strategy, “they might win the battle for net neutrality and still lose the war for a level playing field on the Internet,” the writer claims.