A federal appeals court opened the way for broadband providers to charge content companies for faster speeds, striking down federal rules that had required equal treatment of Internet traffic. The rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission – technically the Open Internet rules – said Internet providers couldn’t block legal content or applications, couldn’t unreasonably treat different types of traffic better or worse than the rest, and had to disclose information about how they bill for and manage Internet traffic. The specifics aren’t clear and are some ways off, but in all likelihood the Internet will gradually move from being a one-size-fits-all service to one where users or content companies can — or have to — pay more for better service or higher volumes of traffic. That means it’s possible some users might get hit with extra charges if they are heavy users of bandwidth. But it’s also possible Internet service providers begin shifting costs from consumers to Web firms like Netflix or Google.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 05:04:03 +0000
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