Net Neutrality in the United States Has Been a Topic of Many Debates

Net Neutrality in the United States has been a topic of many debates. Net Neutrality has drawn diverse supporters to set conflicts between traditional telecommunications companies such Verizon and Comcast against Internet giants such as Yahoo and Google, giving politicians a platform to raise an ongoing liberal-conservative debate over government regulation.

The Federal Communications Commission has never adopted any formal rules concerning Internet regulations, however the commission adopted a set of four broad principles for open Internet in 2005. These principles states that: “To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice, run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement, connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network.” In 2009 the FCC announced two additional principals the principle of Non-Discrimination, which states that broadband providers cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications, and the principle of transparency that states that providers of broadband Internet access must be transparent about their network management practices. (fcc.gov) Under these principals ISPs would not be allowed to block or degrade lawful traffic over their networks or favor any content or applications.

ISPs are the most affected with the laws imposed by FCC, without these regulations broadband providers would be able to block competing internet services on their landline networks, or charge those companies extra for features like guaranteed delivery or higher performance. Verizon recently opened a court case against FCC, Verizon is a strong supporter of the open Internet that provides consumers with competitive choices and unblocked access to lawful websites and content. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against net neutrality, with this new rule big companies such Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and other carriers will have a huge advantage over small companies, the smaller companies will lose with the deal. Inevitably the well know companies would give higher priority to traffic from companies that pay a double-dipping process for the carriers and lower priority, to the ones that can't or won't pay. Innovators lose because they would need permission from the central players. A good example would be Facebook, which didn't need permission to become a behemoth, but the next innovator in social networking will. (theguardian.com)