Netflix has signed a traffic deal with Verizon to ensure its streaming customers who use Verizon internet service do not suffer slow speeds, TheWrap has learned.
“We have reached a deal with Netflix, but the terms are confidential,” Verizon spokesperson Bob Varettoni said. “However, I can say that we reached this agreement to deliver improved service for our combined customers.”
Also read: Comcast Blasts Netflix Over Opposition to Time Warner Cable Merger
Though details of the deal were not immediately made available, the agreement mirrors an arrangement Netflix made with Comcast in February for the cable network to increase streaming speeds for its customers using Netflix.
Netflix has been a vocal opponent of what it calls “ISP Tolls” and an advocate of net neutrality, which encourages equal treatment by internet service providers for all uses without showing preferential treatment to certain products or websites regardless of content.
Also read: Netflix Prime Time Speeds Plummet on Verizon FiOS, Pushing Net Neutrality in Spotlight
Observers were initially critical of the deal, which appeared to fly in the face of Netflix’s stated position on net neutrality. But the company said at the time, and repeated in an April 24 blog post, that it made the deal in reaction to a decline in streaming rates on Comcast.
“Netflix agreed to pay Comcast for direct interconnection to reverse an unacceptable decline in our members’ video experience on the Comcast network,” the streaming video company’s vice president of content delivery Ken Florance said in a written statement.
