Google Fiber wants to trip net neutrality up by ‘colocating’

In the ongoing net neutrality squabble, a main point of contention is the “last mile” connection, which is the home stretch before content reaches you in your home. Though others are vying to find ways to essentially monetize the most important part of your connection, Google Fiber isn’t. The team took the their blog yesterday to address some concerns about net neutrality, Fiber, and you.



The “last mile” has some companies signing huge peering agreements to make sure their content gets to you as it should. Netflix was among the more notable companies who felt coerced to sign an agreement with Comcast to make sure their streaming media got to you and I quickly and efficiently. Paying for that courtesy is not something Fiber wants anyone to deal with.

Fiber is encouraging services, like Netflix, to house their servers with Google’s, which they’re referring to a ‘colocation’. Saying it’s mutually beneficial (a Netflix-esque company gets their media streamed to us, and Google saves money in trafficking it because it comes from their house), Fiber is aiming to stop the “last mile” debate in its tracks:

We give companies like Netflix and Akamai free access to space and power in our facilities and they provide their own content servers. We don’t make money from peering or colocation; since people usually only stream one video at a time, video traffic doesn’t bog down or change the way we manage our network in any meaningful way — so why not help enable it?

Google Fiber also says they don’t play the fast-lane, slow-lane game the FCC is currently entertaining with net neutrality, giving equal attention to all media. When your data speed is a full gigabit, though, it’s not hard to see why fast or slow lanes don’t matter much. Rather than take a stand on net neutrality, Fiber is trying to take it in-house and push content faster. An admirable concept, and as Fiber continues to roll out to more markets at a speedier clip, ‘colocating’ could spell the end for peering and back-door deals.

Source: Google Fiber Blog

