Netflix Throttling Shows Disconnect in Net Neutrality Rules, Tech Knowledge Says

Netflix’s throttling of its own video stream on AT&T and Verizon devices (see 1603250050) was a bad thing, net neutrality advocates concede, Fred Campbell, executive director of Tech Knowledge, said Thursday in a Forbes blog post. But Netflix, as an edge provider, didn’t violate FCC net neutrality rules, which shows a fundamental problem with the rules, Campbell wrote. “Netflix’s behavior was clearly inconsistent with the ‘end goals’ of net neutrality articulated by Google in the FCC first open Internet proceeding: ‘an open, transparent, and neutral Internet environment’ that ‘would optimally extend across all communications platforms and providers,’” he said. “The fact that Netflix’s behavior violated net neutrality’s goals without violating the rules the FCC wrote doesn’t vindicate Netflix. It impugns the FCC’s inexplicable practice of exempting web-based … companies from regulatory oversight while micromanaging the network management practices and investment decisions of Internet service providers.” Campbell is former chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau.