Netflix, Verizon get in last word on Internet rules

Companies like Netflix and Verizon and are getting in a last word before the Federal Communications Commission circulates its Internet rules next week. 

They are keying in on the potential for expanded rules to govern the point of interconnection — where data is transferred from the backbone networks of the Internet to the last mile, where Internet service providers route the content to customers.

{mosads}Netflix has pushed for net neutrality rules to govern interconnection, while Verizon and AT&T oppose it. 

“It is important to recognize that in all of the Internet issues we are still working on the process,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said when asked about the issue Thursday. “Nothing has been decided.”

The entire net neutrality proposal is nearly a year in the making after an appeals court struck down the commission’s previous rules in January 2014. Wheeler is expected to unveil a proposal to reclassify broadband Internet under regulations governing landline telephones. However, details of the proposal remain unclear.

The rules, pushed by President Obama, are meant to prevent service providers from blocking or slowing Internet traffic, while also prohibiting paid deals to allow some Web traffic to receive a faster path once on the provider’s network. But Netflix wants those rules to apply further upstream. 

Internet service providers like Verizon and AT&T, as well Netflix, a massive content provider, had meetings and phone calls with FCC officials this week, specifically referencing interconnection deals. 

Netflix has lamented that it has been forced to pay millions to providers to relieve congestion at the points of interconnection in order to have its video stream smoothly. Those connection deals were exempted from the previous net neutrality rules, which were struck down in court last year. 

Bloomberg reported that the forthcoming rules would allow those deals, but would give the FCC the ability to review the terms. 

Netflix this week said the Internet rules would not be effective if they do not apply further up the Internet chain. 

“Consumers cannot receive the content and applications of their choosing if broadband Internet access providers limit connections with the networks that serve that content or those applications,” Netflix’s director of global public policy, Corie Wright, wrote in a filing with the commission.  

Verizon said those deals with Netflix have worked well and offer flexibility that is essential for Internet growth. The company said the deals are “inherently individualized” and should not be subject to the strict rules. 

AT&T similarly cautioned that, if the FCC does adopt stricter rules, including expanded transparency requirements, they should also apply to backbone networks, like Cogent, which it accused of degrading certain Netflix traffic. 

“ISPs other than Cogent did not know about this practice and could not have disclosed it to their customers,” AT&T wrote in a filing with the commission.