Google Weighs In On Net Neutrality And Caching Plan

Google’s Washington Telecom and Media Counsel Richard Whitt quickly responded to reports in the ">Wall Street Journal today that Google is no longer in favor of net neutrality and that the search giant seeks preferential treatment from ISPs.

Whitt's response was posted on both the Official Google Blog and the Google Public Policy Blog. According to Whitt's post Google stands by its net neutrality promise, but admitted that Google in fact works with ISPs to lower bandwidth cost through a concept called edge caching.

According to Whitt, "Google has offered to "colocate" caching servers within broadband providers' own facilities; this reduces the provider's bandwidth costs." Adding, "We've always said that broadband providers can engage in activities like colocation and caching, so long as they do so on a non-discriminatory basis."

So the question would be, if you help an ISP to save cost are you then gaining preferential treatment and as the WSJ put it "Fast Tracking" your content to users? Edge caching is nothing new companies have been using it for years. If companies didn't use it we wouldn't see some of the high-bandwidth services we have today. So long as content isn't prioritized by destination or source and is delivered at a uniform speed then there really shouldn't be an issue of neutrality