Fast lanes are not coming to Google Fiber, says the company. In backing up its stance against such fast lanes that give content providers the option to pay for faster connections and quicker uploading times, Google announced that in a deal with Netflix, it will not charge more for quicker service. One fiber, one payment price.
According to Google, there will never be extra fees for faster service, an option that Comcast and Verizon currently run. The move is seen as an open and forceful entrance into the debate over fast lanes, which the Federal Communications Commission has proposed, leading to worries that net neutrality may become a thing of the past.
In a blog post, Google Fiber said that it supports a ban on interconnect fees, and fast lanes, as part of the agreements made on net neutrality. The move clearly puts Google on team Netflix in the battle for how the open Internet rules will be made and applied as the FCC continues to debate, both internally and often times publicly, over how the Internet will be run in the future.
"So that your video doesn't get caught up in this possible congestion, we invite content providers to hook up their networks directly to ours," says the posting. "This is called 'peering,' and it gives you a more direct connection to the content that you want."
With a strong partner in Google, Netflix's battle against fast lanes is receiving a huge boost. Google has the ability to determine major Internet issues and understand better than any other tech company what the public is looking for when they browse.
The partnership with Netflix was also described by Fiber as how companies can maintain the connectivity speeds they desire: Put services at Fiber to get the content out to viewers as quickly as possible.
"We give companies like Netflix and Akamai free access to space and power in our facilities and they provide their own content servers. We don't make money from peering or colocation," says Google in the post on their agreements with content providers.
But it is unlikely, even with Google's entrance into the battle over the Internet, that Comcast and Verizon will give up, making the future of net neutrality and an open Internet much more difficult to predict.
