The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will review contracts with Comcast, Verizon, Netflix, and other content providers to see if they caused slower download speeds.
According to FCC director Tom Wheeler, the commission required different companies, especially video content providers, to provide information regarding consumers' complains on slower download speeds.
"Consumers need to understand what is occurring when the Internet service they've paid for does not adequately deliver the content they desire, especially content they've also paid for," Wheeler told Reuters.
The U.S. regulators focused on complaints of the ongoing conflict between content provider Netflix and several Internet service providers (ISPs). Both parties claimed that the other had something to do with slower Internet speeds and a much slower delivery of content and traffic.
Content providers like Netflix resorted to pay middlemen from ISPs to help them deliver their content to customers. The specifics and clauses of these agreements were not disclosed to any outside entity, including the FCC. As a result, these agreements were technically outside the control of the commission.
Nevertheless, the commission wanted to change that, as it launched a new set of rules to regulate broadband providers and how they allocate Internet speeds to their consumers. Netflix supported these new rules, stating that the FCC should start being involved with such agreements in order to eliminate the fee that content providers had to pay for ISPs.
Consumer advocates strongly supported the FCC's involvement in the matter. These advocates appealed for stricter regulatory measures and to require content providers and ISPs to publicize the details of their agreements.
Analysts, on the other hand, predicted that the FCC's call for transparency would ultimately benefit content provider such as Netflix.
"Americans deserve to get the speed and quality of Internet access they pay for," Netflix spokesman Joris Evers said in a statement, as quoted by Reuters.
