The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is looking into complaints from Netflix and some Internet backbone providers that several large broadband providers have been refusing for years to upgrade their backbone connections as a way to slow video traffic that competes with their own services.

Following a public spat this week between Netflix and Verizon Communications, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the agency is collecting information about the so-called peering and transit arrangements that allow Web traffic to flow between networks and content providers.

Wheeler stopped short of calling the FCC review a formal investigation, but he said there is growing public concern about problems with peering arrangements. In recent months, Netflix, along with backbone providers Level 3 and Cogent, have accused large U.S. broadband providers, particularly ones that offer cable-like video services, of refusing to make inexpensive upgrades to their networks in order to accommodate growing video traffic from Web-based competitors.

Comcast, Verizon examined

The FCC staff is collecting information about peering arrangements and about recent traffic management agreements Netflix has signed with Comcast and Verizon, Wheeler said. Netflix officials have complained about those agreements, saying they shouldn’t have to sign side deals with broadband providers to deliver videos broadband customers ask for.

“Consumers must get what they pay for,” Wheeler said in a statement. “As the consumer’s representative we need to know what is going on. I have therefore directed the commission staff to obtain the information we need to understand precisely what is happening in order to understand whether consumers are being harmed.”

So far, the FCC is collecting information and “not regulating,” Wheeler added. “We are looking under the hood. Consumers want transparency. They want answers. And so do I.”

The bandwidth-intensive Netflix has caused some of its own problems by using low-cost backbone providers, Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, suggested during a net neutrality debate this week. Netflix is trying to get broadband providers to deliver its traffic at “zero cost,” he said.

Full Story FCC looking into complaints that broadband ISPs are dragging their heels | PCWorld.