The Latest in IT Security

Netflix just confirmed that it will pay Verizon for direct access through the carriers network, allowing for improved streaming video for customers. According to a brief statement, We have reached an interconnect arrangement with Verizon that we hope will improve performance for our joint customers over the coming months. The announcement mirrors a similar peering deal inked earlier this year made by Netflix and Comcast, and likely wont be the last of its kind. However, they surely must come as a foregone conclusion at least for Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, who said that he expected to sign a deal with the streaming company days after the Comcast agreement. However, the deal flies in the face of the stance Netflix has thusfar espoused, saying that preferential treatment violates their definition of true and total net neutrality. In an impassioned blog post, CEO Reed Hastings wrote, The essence of net neutrality is that ISPs such as ATT and Comcast dont restrict, influence or otherwise meddle with the choices consumers make. After the company made what many saw as a Faustian pact with Comcast in February for direct connectivity, Hastings conceded that the company would reluctantly make deals of that kind going forward, while still fighting for net neutrality.