Video Delivery Network Could be headed by BT, Google

The Guardian has reported that net provider BT are in talks with search giant Google about a deal that could bring great improvements in the speed and quality of online video services such as the hugely popular iPlayer service.

The popularity of these services has raised questions in the past about who should pay for the amount of bandwidth they use. Most recently, the BBC and BT were involved in a conflict over how much of the bandwidth costs, if any, should be attributed to the BBC. Currently content providers don?t pay any cash to ISPs and doing so raises larger issues around the subject of net neutrality.

BT?s wholesale division is believed to be working with both Orange and Virgin Media to put such content on their own network, which along with the BBC, 4oD and Channel 5 will create Content Connect. The idea is to place the bandwidth heavy content onto a network developed by BT rather than using the internet itself, making the service both faster for consumers and more cost effective and efficient for suppliers.

BT hopes the launch the service as early as spring next year, and trials are currently underway that are reported to be going well.

The move should be a pretty positive step forward and could certain alleviate much of the tension from the ongoing debate about who should pay for online video content. With a single television show accounting for the same amount of bandwidth as around 70,000 emails, it?s easy to see why ISPs are worried about the future.

In a statement released this week, Director of Broadband at BT, Sian Baldwin stated:

?It’s really difficult to predict what will happen. You cannot say all of the ISPs will get into a stand-off in which they threaten to cut off the traffic of YouTube or Apple but by my predictions there is a situation where they might have to.?

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