Net Neutrality Jeffrey Fiddler CPE 401 4/12/2010

Outline What is net neutrality?History: ancient and recent.Opponents and their arguments.Proponents and their counter- arguments.Current state of net neutrality.

What is net neutrality? “The concept of "net neutrality'' holds that companies providing Internet service should treat all sources of data equally.“ NY Times, April 6, 2010.

What is net neutrality? "Network neutrality is best defined as a network design principle. The idea is that a maximally useful public information network aspires to treat all content, sites, and platforms equally." Tim Wu, timwu.org

What is net neutrality? “the concept that the Internet should remain free and open to all comers” Google Public Policy Blog, June 16, 2007.

What is net neutrality? Some Guy

Ancient History Common- CarrierTelegraphPayola More Examples...

Opponents and their arguments "The supporters of net neutrality regulation believe that more rules are necessary. In their view, without greater regulation, service providers might parcel out bandwidth or services, creating a bifurcated world in which the wealthy enjoy first-class Internet access, while everyone else is left with slow connections and degraded content. That scenario, however, is a false paradigm. Such an all-or-nothing world doesn't exist today, nor will it exist in the future. Without additional regulation, service providers are likely to continue doing what they are doing. They will continue to offer a variety of broadband service plans at a variety of price points to suit every type of consumer." - Robert Pepper, senior managing director, global advanced technology policy, at Cisco Systems, and former FCC chief of policy development.

Opponents and their arguments "If the goal is to encourage people to build new capabilities, then the party that takes the lead is probably only going to have it on their net to start with and it's not going to be on anyone else's net. You want to incentivize people to innovate, and they're going to innovate on their own nets or a few other nets," Bob Kahn, father of TCP

Opponents and their arguments "We have to create an environment where innovation is possible," "The marketplace determines what is acceptable or not, and so far that has gotten us a long way." Dave Farber, 'grandfather of the internet'

Opponents and their arguments Main arguments:

Proponents and their counter- arguments. This guyThis guy.

Proponents and their counter- arguments. GoogleYahoo!VonageE bayAmazonMicrosoft

Proponents and their counter- arguments. Their main points:

Current state of net neutrality. iPad?Net neutrality neutered?

Questions?