Comcast, Netflix Go to War

Could this signal the end of net neutrality? A dispute between Comcast and one of Netflix’s partners in streaming videos, Level 3 Communications, erupted into public view Monday. Level 3 accused Comcast of demanding an additional fee in order to transmit online movies, a move that it said was “effectively putting up a toll booth at the borders of its broadband Internet access network, enabling it to unilaterally decide how much to charge for content that competes with its own cable TV and Xfinity-delivered content.” The New York Times says Netflix represents 20 percent of Internet download traffic at peak times—a number that makes it a competitor of Comcast and Time Warner. The FCC will take up net neutrality—the idea that Internet providers should not be able to charge based on the content they provide—in December.