Cable Companies Respond To Growing Netflix Demand In Attempts To Limit Bandwidths

As we all are aware of sites like Netflix and Hulu, which for a paid subscription provide unlimited movies and TV, are triumphing over standard cable from the big names like Verizon and Comcast and they know it. Verizon has recently come out with a plan to start charging people to use these sites due to the high levels of bandwidth. The reason behind this is that customers are using more bandwidth than the companies want to provide. Netflix responded to this by offering cable companies servers that basically provide the bandwidths for their services but the traffic still goes through the cable provider which grants them the profit. However Verizon turned down the offer. The government had to step in and stop them from going through with this “limited” plan so in response Verizon is now suing the government over the fact they should be able to charge what they want and limit user bandwidth. If they win this other companies as well could start charging you to pay for certain sites and enforce data caps where if you go over the monthly data limit you will be charged. Comcast tried to enforce this a few years ago but abandoned it. Whether they will win in the courts is still to be determined but would you want to pay more for using more bandwidth? The answer is most likely no!

Written by: Spencer

Sources:

Reddit post (with visual diagram) http://as.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1p22wk/verizon_is_suing_the_government_so_they_can/

The Tek Syndicate Episode 80 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWZQu2u4rBk