Articles about Net Neutrality

Reader reaction to Brian Fagioli post "Sorry Netflix, but you should pay 'tolls' to ISPs" is quite dramatic. Three-hundred-thirty comments later, some of you demand his head. There is even petition "Band Brian Fagioli from Beta News", in response to the post. I assume the petition creator means "ban" but band is good enough for me. Brian is one of the group.

The story requires no editorial response but I give one anyway. Earlier, a reader emailed that he is done with BetaNews. I think my reply to him will benefit other readers, so I share it, slipping in some additional commentary. I hope this answer will illuminate our editorial policies.

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Money doesn't grow on trees and neither does bandwidth. For internet providers, there is a cost for providing the service. For the most part, with broadband connections such as cable, bandwidth is shared between users. And so, if too many users abuse the service -- torrents, ftp servers, media streaming -- it can slow things down for others.

Entire companies are run from the backs of ISPs. One such company is Netflix. If you aren't familiar, the company provides streaming videos for a monthly fee. However, the videos are streamed over third-party internet providers. In other words, Netflix is profiting by using the providers' bandwidth and is sharing none of the money.

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Wireless carriers are opposing net neutrality because their networks have limited capacity and they need more flexibility to handle traffic. But they are missing an opportunity by not embracing spectrum sharing, a technology that could vastly increase the available bandwidth.

Net neutrality has been in the headlines following Verizon's recent Federal court win against the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) open Internet rules. Also, AT&T is now courting corporate sponsors to help subsidize customer data plans. Some consumer rights groups view these events as a concerted effort to undermine the longstanding practice that compels service providers to treat all traffic equally. These events could all signal the beginning of a tiered-off Internet.

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Last week the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia shot holes in the US Federal Communications Commission’s version of net neutrality saying the Commission was wrong not in trying to regulate Internet Service Providers but in trying to regulate them as Common Carriers, that is as telephone utilities.

The FCC can’t have it both ways, said the Court, and so the Feds get to try all over again. Or will they? I think events are moving so quickly that by the time this particular argument is worked out all the players will have changed and the whole argument may be moot.

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I would dump DSL tomorrow and switch the family to cellular data, if not for cost. Downstream wireless is faster than my home Internet and would always be there -- wherever the phone goes; use it as personal hotspot for PC or tablet. But pesky, expensive data caps hold me back.

So I'm intrigued by one of the oddest and most provocative announcements coming on Consumer Electronics Show 2014 Day 0: AT&T "Sponsored Data". The carrier turns around the Net Neutrality debate by encouraging data gluttons to pay up so that cellular customers can consume more while paying less. It's a novel concept, and I like it. Netflix, this is for you, baby. You might resist, but I'll love you forever if you sponsor me. Surely, I'm not alone.

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June 2nd marked the return shots fired by telecommunications juggernaut Verizon against the Federal Communications Commission for fines the FCC leveled on them in regards to network neutrality. In a legal brief filed in Washington DC at the United States Court Of Appeals, Verizon and regional cell phone provider MetroPCS formally appealed.

Verizon claims that the FCC forcing them to keep all data traffic equal priority is unconstitutional -- that equal priority of data is an affront to carrier's freedom of speech.

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Comcast said Thursday it plans to make changes to its pricing structure to start billing for the amount of data customers use, versus the capped method in place today. The cable company will test two different pricing structures in some markets, while hard enforcement of the 250GB cap put into place in 2008 would end.

Both piloted pricing structures give users 300GB of data at a flat rate. Where they differ is in how this allotment is treated: one solution places this cap across all of Comcast's tiers, while the other carries the 300GB allotment for the Internet Essentials, Economy, and Performance tier and higher allotments for faster tiers above that.

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Comcast is still throttling peer-to-peer traffic, but on a much smaller scale. Data provided by traffic analytics firm Measurement Lab and compiled by Syracuse University researchers this week provides verification of that.

While Comcast was slowing down half of BitTorrent traffic across its network in the second quarter 2008, it had decreased throttling efforts to about three percent of all BitTorrent packets by the end of the first quarter of 2010.

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Media reform group Free Press has filed suit in the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, asking the courts to review the Federal Communications Commission's "Open Internet Rules." Those policies were passed last December in an effort to create a formal code of conduct for broadband providers following accusations of unfair traffic handling.

These rules force providers to be transparent about how they handle Internet traffic and forbid the favoring of one company's traffic over another. But it's not the same for wireless data.

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Lawsuits filed against the Federal Communications Commission by both Verizon and MetroPCS earlier this year over its new net neutrality rules were dismissed by an appeals court on Monday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the lawsuits had been filed too early.

Both wireless companies seemingly had hoped to make the issue about protection of rights to its respective spectrum holdings, but judges appeared to lean on rules surrounding how FCC regulations can be challenged. Legal action can only be filed in the 30 days following the publishing of the policies in the Federal Register.

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It is understandable to think the Net Neutrality argument is new, but it is actually rooted in legislation that first passed in 1860. The Pacific Telegraph Act, which was passed in that year, essentially stated that no individual or entity, save the government, would be given preferential access to information which they were entitled to.

While today's Net Neutrality debate is surrounded by a much more complex information infrastructure, the same basic principles apply. A consumer's right to access information to which they are legally entitled is protected, and content carriers may not prioritize one customer or content provider over another.

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Four Democratic Senators on Wednesday sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, urging them to quash the GOP-led House Resolution to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's new net neutrality rules with either the appropriations process or the Congressional Review Act.

The letter, drafted by Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Al Franken (D-MN), says, "Such action aims to strip the FCC of its legal authority over modern communications and hand control of the Internet over to the owners of the wires that deliver information and services over them."

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Fresh off their increased numbers in Congress, the GOP is setting its sights in the FCC controversial net neutrality rules as its next target. Forty Republican senators led by Commerce committee ranking member Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas as well as two Republican House members are spearheading a repeal effort.

The Congressional Review Act, passed in 1996, allows Congress to review the rulemakings of government agencies and overturn them if need be. Of course since this is a legislative procedure, any effort would require President Obama's signature or lacking that a two-thirds majority in either legislative body to override a veto.

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Tuesday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wa.) introduced a bill called The Internet Freedom, Broadband Promotion, and Consumer Protection act of 2011 on behalf of herself and co-sponsor Senator Al Franken (D-Mn.)

Both Cantwell and Franken have expressed public concern about net neutrality in the wake of the FCC's passage of the Open Internet Order and approval of Comcast's joint content venture with NBC Universal, and this bill seeks to create stronger guidelines for net neutrality.

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Verizon said Thursday that it had filed suit in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in an effort to challenge the FCC's authority over net neutrality. The FCC voted on December 21 to prohibit ISPs from selectively throttling web traffic on a 3-2 vote.

The court is the same one that struck down an earlier attempt by the communications agency to stop Comcast from throttling BitTorrent traffic. At the time, the three-judge panel said that Congress has never given the FCC the power to regulate an ISP's network management policies.

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