Net Neutral

The issue of Net Neutrality has been raised again with Tiscali making a specific attack on the BBC's beleaguered iPlayer. This is disingenuous for two reasons. First of all, Tiscali, who spent a large sum purchasing IPTV company Video Networks, has a vested interest. Secondly, iPlayer is meant to showcase P2P technologies which is meant to reduce network traffic.

Of course, all P2P players do is to move network traffic onto the last mile, so ISPs carry the cost, whilst the BBC are, theoretically at least, saving costs.

But the issue is a serious one and it is my contention that video over the internet will mean an end to net neutrality - agreements between ISPs whereby they do not charge each other for traffic between their networks.

Indeed, this is a contention I had when I founded Narrowstep five and a half years ago and - full disclosure - no company is better positioned to take advantage if this comes to pass, in my opinion, since our business model has been built with this eventuality in mind.

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