The chief executive of one of the nation's largest providers of the Internet's backbone blamed cable giant Comcast for a slowdown in Netflix streaming traffic over the last two years.
Cogent Communications Group Inc. CEO Dave Schaeffer made the comments at a congressional hearing about the merger Thursday.
Schaeffer says that approving Comcast Corp.'s $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable Inc. would only strengthen the combined entity's ability to control what Internet subscribers can consume online.
Netflix reluctantly agreed to pay Comcast in February for a better connection to its network.
Comcast said in response to Schaeffer's comments that the market for such connections was competitive and the merger won't change that.
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