http://torrentfreak.com/virgin-media-ceo-says-net-neutrality-is-a-load-of-bollocks-080413/
The new CEO of Virgin Media is putting his cards on the
table early, branding net neutrality “a load of bollocks” and
claiming he’s already doing deals to deliver some people’s content
faster than others. If you aren’t prepared to cough up the extra
cash, he says he’ll put you in the Internet “bus lane”.
Net neutrality really is the hot topic at the moment. Ignited by
the Comcast fiasco, the concept of net neutrality has certainly
been brought into the mainstream. Most ISPs are never quite
forthcoming about their throttling, capping and otherwise
interfering behavior, but that crowd certainly doesn’t include the
CEO of Virgin Media, the UK’s second largest ISP.
In an interview with the Royal Television Society’s Television
magazine, far from covering up their intentions, Virgin Media’s new
incoming CEO Neil Berkett - who joined the Virgin Media Board just
a few days ago - has launched an attack on the ideas and principles
behind net neutrality.
“This net neutrality thing is a load of bollocks,” he said, adding
that Virgin is already in the process of doing deals to speed up
the traffic of certain media providers.
With around 3.5 million customers in the UK, and already traffic
shaping due to lack of capacity, it’s a sobering thought that at
the behest of “content providers” with deep pockets, Virgin is
prepared to speed up their traffic, which would presumably have a
negative impact on those at the bottom of the ISP’s priority list,
namely bandwidth hungry file-sharers.
Berkett then turned on the BBC and their iPlayer service, telling
them - and other public broadcasters like them - that if they don’t
pay a premium to gain faster access to Virgin Media’s customers,
their service would be put into “bus lanes”.
It just shows that some ISPs are happy to throttle just about
anyone in the name of profit, it’s just that most aren’t as open
about it as Mr Berkett.