The battle for net neutrality is getting heated as AT&T shot back at a recent statement made by Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings. According to Hastings, ISPs should burden the cost of increased bandwidth. But AT&T believes this to be unfair, and that Netflix should pay for increased bandwidth and factor out that cost back to its subscribers.
Senior EVP Jim Cicconi stated on AT&T's blog that Netflix subscribers are the ones to blame for increased traffic demands, which is forcing ISPs to build new facilities to keep up. This means Netflix subscribers should be the ones to bear a hike in fees instead of AT&T's own customers who do not use Netflix.
"As we all know, there is no free lunch, and there's also no cost-free delivery of streaming movies." says Cicconi. "Someone has to pay that cost. Mr. Hastings' arrogant proposition is that everyone else should pay but Netflix. That may be a nice deal if he can get it. But it's not how the Internet, or telecommunication for that matter, has ever worked."
Is AT&T in the right with throwing the costs at Netflix's feet? Yes, a resounding yes. Streaming content several gigabytes of content per day puts pressure on the broadband infrastructure of ISPs, forcing them to upgrade their network to please a selected few.
Now, AT&T could simply hike the rate of the broadband service, but that would mean customers who do not use Netflix would be forced to pay extra just to do what they have normally done online. Is that fair? We don't think so at all.
Reed Hastings should stop complaining and pay up, and then offset the cost to its subscriber base.
Bear in mind though, this could come back to hurt AT&T and any other ISP planning to do the same thing.
If Netflix wants to change the game into its favor, the company should charge customers using AT&T broadband extra, yet keep the regular cost for those using an ISP that does not force Netflix to pay. Such a move could give Netflix subscribers an incentive to switch ISP providers, along with putting pressure on AT&T and others drop the will to charge Netflix for faster speeds.
How did it begin?
This problem of ISPs charging big tech companies for faster bandwidth came to life after Verizon challenged the net neutrality rules and won. This victory led the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C to send the rules back to the FCC for it to be rewritten.
It is likely that other tech companies such as Hulu, and Google's YouTube might have to pay ISPs for faster bandwidth, which could lead to Hulu charging customers more and Google charging for the use of YouTube.
Whatever the FCC is planning, it is clear that things will no longer be the same.
