On-demand Internet streaming media provider Netflix, Inc. and U.S. telecom giant AT&T announced a partnership that aims to improve buffering speeds of online shows.

Netflix signed similar agreements with broadcasting giant Comcast Corporation in February and wireless service provider Verizon Communications in May.

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Comcast said it reached an interconnection agreement with Netflix in May and since then has been working together to provision additional interconnect capacity to improve the viewing experience for their mutual subscribers.

Details about the deal's financial terms were not disclosed.

In the wake of the Comcast agreement, Netflix's chief executive officer Reed Hastings said Netflix was fundamentally coerced into striking interconnection deals so Internet users would not experience slower service, according to PC Magazine.

He said that such partnerships were ideally not essential with strong network neutrality rules but the Federal Communications Commission said it will exclude peering agreements in its present rule making operations.

Direct connections, though, can prove beneficial. Since signing the agreement, Comcast's streaming speeds increased by 65 percent.

Hastings is merely suggesting that such high-speed connections should not require payment but be given from the get go.

Neflix expects the agreement to relieve overcrowding and enhance its users' viewing experience.

Though now in agreement, Comcast was previously feuding with Netflix because of a blog post "Internet Tolls and the Case for Strong Net Neutrality" where Hastings wrote that Internet service providers "must provide sufficient access to their network without charge."

Comcast, which was specifically identified in the post as an "industry leader in supporting weak net neutrality," replied that companies like Netflix have always paid for interconnections to the Internet and have sufficient options to ensure users receive reasonable performance at a fair price.

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