Taxing video streaming services idea dead in Australia
Some months ago, NBN Co, a government-owned corporation that operates Australia’s national broadband network, opened a consultation process asking resellers whether they would support ‘the development of a price response whereby charging of streaming video could be differentiated from the charging of other traffic/services’ and put net neutrality up for debate in the country. The proposal was dubbed the ‘Netflix tax’ by critics as users would be charged more to access video streaming services. Experts claimed that there is a need for net neutrality legislation in Australia. After all the controversy, NBN Co released its pricing consultation paper saying that ‘NBN has therefore elected to focus on ways to meet the challenge of growing video traffic by increasing CVC [connectivity virtual circuit] inclusions and making higher speeds more affordable’, adding that there are no plans to charge users based on their streaming.