FCC Investigating Netflix Issues On Comcast And Verizon

Online video streaming behemoth Netflix has made no secret of its displeasure of the speed issues its customers face on two of the biggest internet service providers in the U.S., Comcast and Verizon. Netflix even signed deals with both providers, paying to ensure that its subscribers were not throttled. The Federal Communications Commission is now looking into these issues and it has obtained the agreements made between both providers and Netflix earlier this year.

Its imperative to note that the FCC is not taking a regulatory step at this time. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said that for now the Commission is only collecting information about the issues which a lot of customers have been complaining about.

Wheeler does say that “Customers must get what they pay for,” and that they shouldn’t have to wonder why the service doesn’t perform like its supposed to even when they pay both the ISP and the content provider, like Netflix.

Netflix already posts an index on its website monthly that lists ISP performance. Recently it even started calling out ISPs on which customers faced network congestion when connecting to Netflix. Verizon wasn’t too happy about it and even sent a cease and desist letter, whereas Netflix has said that its going to stop calling out ISPs for the time being.

These days there’s already a heated debate about net neutrality going on. It is Netflix’s stance that net neutrality rules should govern paid deals between ISPs but Verizon doesn’t agree. Even though the FCC isn’t pointing any fingers right now Netflix would certainly be glad that its finally looking into the matter.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: comcast, FCC, Netflix, Verizon