Last month, the internet exploded with backlash when a court shot down FCC’s Net Neutrality regulations. It seems that the lack of such regulations allows certain operators to throttle data flow, causing problems for Netflix users.
Since the court threw out the ‘Net Neutrality’ document, it has become legal for ISPs which include wireless operators to charge extra fees in order to deliver high-speed data from services such as Netflix. This possibility simply means that any operator can throttle data from any popular service, excusing itself by saying that traffic congestion is to blame.
This operator can then ask the content provider to pay extra and have fast-speed data delivery ensured. If this goes on for long, content providers will be forced to comply or their user base will take a hit. It’s sad to note the courts in the U.S. are actively facilitating this process, blatantly siding with the wireless carriers.
The aforementioned hypothetical scenario is precisely what seems to be happening in the case of Netflix. A number of Netflix users are experiencing slow speeds, frozen screams and overall a poor streaming experience. The company has highlighted Verizon and Comcast as the providers whose Netflix transmission is significantly slow. But do these ISPs respond to the problem?
They have a ready-made excuse that there is congestion in the network. This may be true in many cases, it may even be true in this case, but this is a problem which is the responsibility of the operator. This must not become an industry-wide excuse to make away with slower speeds. And to do that, FCC must bring ‘Net Neutrality’ back on table and have it passed. Moreover, the regulatory authority needs to have access to the data of operators, at least in the instances of such speed-throttling problems, so that it can review the issues and give a definite verdict as to who or what is responsible.
Courtesy: Technology Review
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