Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix has finally chimed in with his own statement about net neutrality and the deal his company struck with Comcast. As written in a blog post, the traditional standards recently overturned by a Verizon lawsuit (which prevent ISPs from restricting or meddling with data) are "important...but insufficient." As we noted when the deal happened, a peering agreement like the one Comcast and Netflix now have is not covered by existing network neutrality rules, but Hastings argues that in order for strong net neutrality to exist, it should be. While he says that in the short term Netflix is playing ball with ISPs like Comcast (and may make other, similar agreements in the future) to improve the experience for its customers, he hopes that those same companies will support "strong" net neutrality that lets Netflix connect to their networks with no fees (Open Connect).

Update: Comcast has responded to Hastings' blog post with a statement of its own (available in full after the break) from EVP David Cohen. If it's planning on responding to the Netflix exec's call to support strong net neutrality, it isn't doing so yet, saying that open internet rules were never designed to deal with peering and interconnection. According to the ISP, providers like Netflix have always paid a "fair price" for their connection to the internet and see their agreement as a reflection of "the effectiveness of the market as a mechanism to deal with these matters."