Out-Law News 2 min. read
05 Aug 2010, 3:14 pm
Editor's note, 05/08/2010: Google and Verizon have dismissed the New York Times story on which our report was based. A Google spokeswoman told the Guardian newspaper: "The New York Times is quite simply wrong. We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google traffic. We remain as committed as we always have been to an open internet."
Editor's note, 10/08/2010: Google and Verizon have agreed a joint policy proposal. There's more from the Guardian.
The deal would undermine what for some is a fundamental quality of the internet, which is that it treats all information as equal and gives none priority. That has become a major economic and political issue in the US in recent years, where it is termed 'net neutrality'.
ISPs have argued that they should have the right to be paid not only by subscribers for access to the internet but also by content producers for delivering material to those subscribers.
Content producers have opposed any interference with the principle that all information is equal, fearing having to pay ISPs or find their access to audiences suffer.
Google is one of the internet's biggest content providers via its search engine, its YouTube video sharing site and its webmail service Gmail.
Observers of the struggles in the US may be puzzled, then, to see Google listed as a company that may drop its objections to a change in the way that Verizon manages its network.
The New York Times (NYT) reports that in till-now secret negotiations, Google may be prepared to drop any challenge to changes Verizon makes to its network management policies.
US telecoms regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is operating a negotiating process to find a solution to the conflict between content providers and ISPs. It had previously ordered ISP Comcast not to differentiate between pieces of internet traffic but a federal court said that it did not have the authority to make that order.
A spokesman for Verizon told the NYT that the company was still engaged in and committed to the FCC talks, but if it and Google came to a deal that ended Google's opposition to differential treatment, that could undermine those discussions.
A certain amount of 'traffic shaping' is used by ISPs to ensure that limited bandwidth is available to subscribers on a fair basis. Some ISPs cap the usage of very heavy users, or reduce the speed of download of some files, such as music files, to allow text traffic through.
UK telecoms regulator Ofcom last month published a report which assessed UK ISPs' traffic management policies. Ofcom concluded (68-page / 595KB PDF) that there was no cause for concern here.
Ofcom said that it had had no serious complaints about UK ISPs' policies and that consumers have no grounds for concern.
