Neil Berkett said that Virgin Media, the second biggest
broadband provider in the UK, is talking to producers about
creating a fast-track access system which would enable their
content to be prioritised on its network.
Such a system would relegate companies which did not pay its
fees to slower connections, meaning that users' experience of those
sites and services would be degraded.
Berkett's comments, in an interview with the Royal Television
Society's magazine Television, will ignite a debate in the UK over
net neutrality, a subject that has been the source of controversy
in the US in recent years. Net neutrality is the name given to the
current state of internet access which treats all packets of
information equally.
In the US, telecoms companies have objected to the fact that
online video and audio companies are making money from internet
users over networks the telcos provide. They want to be able to
offer faster access to their consumers to content firms, for a
fee.
Opponents say that consumers pay telecoms firms for equal access
to the entire internet, not for preferential access to those firms
who have also paid their telecoms provider.
Berkett told Television that he believed the UK Government was
open to the idea of fast and slow lane internet access.
"This net-neutrality thing is a load of bollocks," he said.
Television magazine said that Berkett told it that the company
is already negotiating with content producers and video games
publishers about 'more effective' access to Virgin Media
subscribers. He conceded that the plan would slow down the
connections subscribers would have to material produced by firms
which did not pay it.
Virgin Media released a statement today which neither confirmed
nor denied the specifics of what Berkett is reported by Television
magazine to have said.
"We strongly support the principle that the internet should
remain a space that is open to all and we have not called for
content providers to pay for distribution," it said, though Berkett
had not talked about refusing to carry content from non-payers,
merely giving it a lower priority.
"We recognise that as more customers turn to the web for
content, different providers will have different needs and
priorities and in the long term, it's legitimate to question how
this demand will be managed," it said.
OUT-LAW.COM asked both the Department for Business, Enterprise
and Regulatory Reform and telecoms regulator Ofcom whether they
would be happy to see traffic differentiated according to which
producers pay ISPs a fee. Each said that it was a commercial matter
for the ISPs and not for Government or the regulator to deal with.
An Ofcom spokeswoman said it was "keeping an eye" on the issue.
