The nation's largest internet provider, Comcast, and its biggest bandwidth consumer, Netflix, have reached a deal that may speed up video streaming speeds and raise prices. Comcast was reportedly getting tired of having Netflix eat up 30 to 40 percent of its total bandwidth and getting no money in return. It's also been reported that Comcast had slowed down Netflix's site, thus affecting streaming video speeds, since October.

Netflix's position for quite some time was that it should be treated like any other website and not have to pay for server space. Unfortunately, that's just wishful thinking in this day and age. There's no word on who much Netflix has agreed to pay Comcast, but it couldn't afford to alienate customers over streaming speeds just two-thirds as fast as before.

Other telecom companies have been pressuring Netflix for the same type of deal. Those companies include AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner Cable. Time Warner Cable is in serious merger talks with Comcast. While some have decried the proposed merger as monopolistic, it would certainly make things easier for Netflix. It could pay Comcast one fee and not have to worry about negotiating a deal with TWC.

What can the average consumer expect from this deal? It's not all bad -- in fact, streaming speeds and video quality (particularly HD and 4K) will improve. The bad news, and everyone certainly saw this coming, is potentially higher costs. Netflix currently charges a more than reasonable $7.99 which is on par with commercial-laden competitor Hulu. Netflix will need to recoup the money that they will lost to Comcast.

Comcast has said the deal won't provide Netflix a leg up on the competition.

"Netflix receives no preferential network treatment," according to a recently released statement.

That statement is quite ironic considering that, after the Comcast-TWC merger is approved, the mega corporation will have no competition to speak of in much of America. 

With this Netflix deal it's apparent that telecom companies want to extract as much profit as it can from the internet. But will video streaming cost as much as cable TV one day?

Let us know if you are concerned that Netflix, Hulu and other video streaming sites will be forced to dramatically raise their prices due to pressure from telecom companies.