Some reports from last week indicate that Google has been seeking preferential treatment from broadband providers in order to generate 'fast lane' for its own content. However, the company denied these accusations, reaffirming its commitment to net neutrality. According to the reports, Google has offered large US phone and cable companies money in return for privileged network access. This way, the revenue gained by the broadband providers would help Google keep up with the growing cost of internet traffic.

Richard Whitt, Google's head of public affairs, said in a blog posting that the reports make confuse claims. Actually, the company was trying to establish the so-called “edge caching”, which does not interfere with the concept of net neutrality. Edge caching is a network upgrade which can easily be employed by broadband providers. The technology stores frequently accessed data on servers located close to end users so that content can be accessed faster. For example, companies like Akamai, Limelight and Amazon's Cloudfront provide local caching services.

It is well known that Google has traditionally been one of the best advocates in the process of equal network access for all content providers. Cable and phone companies that operate the data pipelines are supposed to treat all traffic the same and nobody is supposed to jume the line. However, it looks like one major cable operator in talks with Google refused to sign a deal, and that's because the operator was concerned it might violate the FCC's (Federal Communications Commission) guidelines on network neutrality. It remains to be seen how Google will convince everyone it's still trying to respect the network neutrality.