Verizon: Heavy Web users should pay more

Heavy broadband users should help shoulder the cost of their traffic, but Verizon Communications does not give preferential treatment to some Web traffic, said Verizon Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam.

Verizon has had its own interconnection discussions with Netflix related to increasing the video provider's traffic speeds on the broadband carrier's networks, McAdam said. The Comcast and Netflix deal shows "the commercial markets can come to agreement on these to make sure the investments keep flowing," McAdam said. McAdam addressed the Federal Communications Commission's proposed network neutrality rules about Vodafone's 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless. The FCC's move to resurrect net neutrality rules should provide "clarity" for the broadband industry, said McAdam, whose company successfully challenged an old version of the regulations in court. McAdam dismissed concerns that his company would selectively block or slow some Web content. But McAdam suggested that broadband power users should pay extra. "It's only natural that the heavy users help contribute to the investment to keep the Web healthy," he said. "That is the most important concept of Net neutrality." The FCC needs to look at the broad Internet industry, not just broadband providers, when it considers new net neutrality rules, McAdam said. Companies like Netflix, Apple, Microsoft and Google have a role, and "any rules will have to include all of these players," he said.