Netflix Throttling: What (If Anything) Will the FCC Do?

Just when disputes between broadband providers and content providers about content delivery and network neutrality seemed to be over, along came the revelation about Netflix throttling of traffic to wireless customers of AT&T and Verizon. The big question now is how the Federal Communications Commission is likely to respond, or whether it will respond at all, to the Netflix throttling revelations.

When the commission imposed net neutrality guidelines early in 2015, it noted that the guidelines applied only to broadband providers – and some stakeholders argue that the commission simply may not have the authority to impose similar guidelines on content providers such as Netflix, which are sometimes known as “edge providers.” Where Netflix may be on shakier ground, however, is with regard to transparency and disclosure requirements. Reportedly, neither AT&T nor Verizon nor customers of either company were advised that Netflix was using a lower data rate for AT&T and Verizon customers. The NetCompetition e-forum author argued that Netflix could be in violation of FTC fair business rules by secretly throttling users’ streaming rates. If nothing else, the FCC may need to rethink how it investigates net neutrality complaints. “Until now, the expectation was if there was traffic throttling detected on the network, it was presumed to be the work of an ISP,” notes NetCompetition. “Now the FCC knows that is not necessarily true. “Now when an edge platform seeks to accuse an ISP of a net neutrality violation, the FCC’s investigation should responsibly cast a wider net than before we learned of Netflix’ duplicity, and investigate if an edge provider has been throttling or blocking the Internet traffic in question.”