In a new development to news earlier today that Verizon and Google were nearing an agreement that might end net neutrality, both companies have now released statements to the contrary.

In Google's case, the statement came as a Tweet around mid-day Thursday.

"@NYTimes is wrong. We've not had any convos with VZN about paying for carriage of our traffic. We remain committed to an open internet," the Tweet said. Verizon had posted a similar statement on its Policy Blog shortly before that.

"The NYT article regarding conversations between Google and Verizon is mistaken.  It fundamentally misunderstands our purpose," David Fish wrote. "As we said in our earlier FCC filing, our goal is an Internet policy framework that ensures openness and accountability, and incorporates specific FCC authority, while maintaining investment and innovation. To suggest this is a business arrangement between our companies is entirely incorrect." 

The New York Times article , which was first posted online Wednesday, didn't name the source of the information. It only credited "people close to the negotiations who were not authorized to speak publicly about them."