supermandroid
Active Member
From what I can tell, very few people understand that this has NOTHING to do with net neutrality. The bandwidth hogs (Netflix) and providers are simply battling over how consumers should pay for it. And that's only an issue with regard to competition keeping rates competitive.
Regardless of whether or not this is about Verizon Wireless the cellular service provider or Verizon the Internet service provider, this sounds to me like it's the epitome of what net neutrality is all about. Wikipedia defines net neutrality as "Net neutrality (also network neutrality, Internet neutrality or net equality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication." They are treating Netflix data differently, and they have threatened to pass the "extra costs" on to the subscribers. The point being is that if there is a law defining data and enforcing net neutrality, then Verizon would be breaking federal laws and subject to appropriate consequences.