Google reaffirms net neutrality stance

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 16 Dec 2008 at 10:51

Google has denied that its plans for a "fast lane" for its traffic represent a threat to net neutrality.

"Google remains strongly committed to the principle of net neutrality, and we will continue to work with policymakers in the years ahead to keep the internet free and open," Richard Whitt, Google's Washington-based counsel for telecom and media, wrote in a posting on the company blog.

Whitt was responding to a story in the Wall Street Journal that claimed Google was approaching internet providers to create a fast lane for its own traffic. Whitt described the report as confused.

He argued that Google was discussing plans to place "edge caching servers" within the infrastructure of service providers. This would ease data traffic at well frequented sites such as YouTube, and could be done so long as it was implemented without discrimination by service providers.

Whitt noted that "some critics have questioned whether improving web performance through edge caching ... violates the concept of network neutrality," and swiftly argued that it does not.