November 12, 2013

Origins of the Net

Neutrality Debate
Coalition of Broadband Users and

Innovators (CBUI) sent a letter to FCC

Chairman Michael Powell in November
2002
It included the phrase net neutrality
coined by Tim Wu in an article written in
2002 and published in 2003
CBUI called for nondiscrimination
safeguards to guarantee net neutrality

What is Net Neutrality?

Net neutrality simply means that all like
Internet content must be treated alike and
move at the same speed over the network.
The owners of the Internets wires cannot
discriminate. This is the simple but brilliant
end-to-end design of the Internet that has
made it such a powerful force for economic
and social good.
Lawrence Lessig and Robert W. McChesney, No Tolls on the
Internet, Washington Post, June 8, 2006.

Ask a Ninjas What is Net Neutrality? video

Eli Noams Possible

Meanings
No different quality grades for service
No price discrimination among Internet providers
No monopoly price charged to content and

application providers
No discrimination against content providers who
compete with carriers own content
No selectivity by the carriers over the content
that they transmit
No blocking of the access of users to some
websites

Congress and the FCC Encourage

Telephone and Cable to Compete
Telecom Act of 1996
FCC decisions to permit telephone

companies to buy cable networks and

cable operators to compete in
telephone markets
FCC wanted telcos and cable
companies to compete in high-speed
Internet and cable TV services via new
fiber optic networks built without
government subsidies

Top ISPs in the USA (2011)

Comcast
Time Warner
AT&T
Cox
Optimum
Charter
Verizon

Cable operators

Telephone companies

Source: http://isp-review.toptenreviews.com/

Top Global Web Sites

(2011)

Google
Facebook
YouTube
Yahoo!

Wikipedia
Baidu
Blogspot
Twitter

Michael Powells
Internet Freedoms, 2004

freedom to access content

freedom to use applications
freedom to attach personal devices
freedom to obtain service plan
information

FCC Policy Statement

2005 are entitled to access the lawful
consumers

Internet content of their choice

consumers are entitled to run applications and
services of their choice, subject to the needs of
law enforcement
consumers are entitled to connect their choice of
legal devices that do not harm the network
consumers are entitled to competition among
network providers, application and service
providers, and content providers

Proponents Videos
Tim Wu
Save the Internet
Vint Cerf

Arguments of Proponents
End-to-end architecture of the Internet

must be preserved
This means preventing discrimination
by conduit companies against content
and services that they do not control
Conduit companies will reserve lots of
bandwidth for services like cable TV
which will degrade Internet
performance for everyone else
Vint Cerf

More Arguments of
Proponents
There is insufficient competition
between cable operators and telcos
to guarantee non-discrimination
There is a potential for violations of
freedom of speech in the absence of
net neutrality guarantees

Gigi Sohn

Larry
Lessig

Tim
Berners-Lee

Organizations that
Supported Net Neutrality
ACLU
ALA
Christian Coalition
Gun Owners of America
Consumers Union
Google, Amazon, Yahoo!
American Electronics Association

The Opponents
Perspective on Net
Neutrality
NCTA anti-NN ad
Fox News coverage
Glenn Beck

David Farber

Arguments of Opponents
Net neutrality guarantees constitute

unnecessary regulation
The threat of discrimination is overblown
Cable and telephone companies need new
revenues to build out the network
Need to have intelligent networks to
obtain quality of service
Competition is sufficient to prevent
abuses

The Video Franchise

Bill, 2006
Attempts by Democrats led by Ed

Markey in the House to add net

neutrality amendments failed in
committee and on the floor
Net neutrality amendment proposed by
Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) failed to
pass in an 11-11 committee vote
Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) voted
against the amendment

Ted Stevens Tubes

Statement
And again, the Internet is not something you
just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a
series of tubes. And if you don't understand
those tubes can be filled and if they are filled,
when you put your message in, it gets in line and
it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into
that tube enormous amounts of material,
enormous amounts of material.
June 28, 2006

Series of Tubes Remix

Popular Reaction to Ted Stevens

statement

Telecom Lobbying Money

Spent in the First Half of
2006
Category
Specific Firms and
Amount in $
Organization
Telephone
Interests

AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth,

and USTA

millions
30.3

Cable Interests Comcast, Time Warner, Cox,

and NCTA

12.2

Internet
Interests

8.8

Total

Google, Yahoo!, eBay,

Microsoft, Amazon.com

51.3

Wyden Saves the Day

Ron Wyden used his Senatorial privilege

to place a hold on the Video Franchise

bill because of the lack of net neutrality
guarantees. Since Ted Stevens did not
have the 60 votes needed to override
Wydens hold, the bill was not put up for
a vote on the Senate floor.

Barack Obama Supports

Net Neutrality
Speech on net neutrality at Google in 2007
Net neutrality becomes part of the official

Democratic party platform in 2008

Obama appoints Julius Genachowski as
head of the FCC in 2009
American Recovery and Investment Act of
2009 provides $7.2 billion for broadband
infrastructure and mandates that the FCC
prepare a National Broadband Plan

Genachowski Adds Two Items

to FCC Policy Statement of
2005
broadband providers cannot

discriminate against particular Internet

content or applications
providers of broadband Internet
access must be transparent about their
network management processes.

Video of Genachowski

The National Broadband

Plan
FCC announced intention to guarantee net
neutrality in spite of Comcast ruling in 2009
Genachowski spoke of a third way
between heavy-handed prescriptive
regulation and the light-touch approach
of the past
FCC would attempt to reclassify
transmission component of broadband as a
telecommunication service

Comcast Throttling of
Bit-Torrent Traffic in
Robb Topolski discovers delays in delivery of
2007
Bit-Torrent files for his barber shop quartet
Topolski publishes this on TorrentFreak blog
EFF and AP verify independently
Comcast eventually admits that it was

traffic shaping using an application called

Sandvine that prevents seeding
The FCC told Comcast to stop doing this
Comcast complied but appealed to courts

The Comcast Ruling of

2010
US Circuit Court of Appeals of DC ruled
on April 6, 2010, that the FCC did not
have the authority to regulate ISPs
under the Telecom Act of 1996 (therefore
Comcast was not bound to obey FCC
rules regarding traffic management)
Ruling was based on FCC decision to
reclassify cable modems and DSL as
information services

Verizon-Google Agreement
In August 2010, Verizon and Google

announced a joint policy proposal

The jist of it was:
Telecom companies agree to net

neutrality on their wired networks

Internet firms agree that net neutrality
rules will not apply to wireless networks
Both agree that reasonable traffic
management is permissible on both
wired and wireless networks

Verizon Challenge to FCC

Open Internet Order
Verizon argues in a suit before the US Court
(2013)
of Appeals that the FCC overstepped its
authority in reclassifying Internet service in
its Open Internet Order and violating
Verizons 1st and 5th amendment rights
In May 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that
agencies have authority to regulate when
legislation is ambiguous
Two of the Court of Appeals judges are
opposed to treating all content equally but
no ruling yet

New FCC Chair

New Chair, Ted Wheeler as of October 2013

Telecom lobbyist background
Hired Gigi Sohn for policy advice

Conclusions
Net neutrality was framed by Republicans as a

regulatory issue. Democratic framing was confusing.

Republicans and their supporters carried the day until
June 2006 when the political tide began turn against
them.
The 2006 and 2008 election results meant that
Democrats and their allies would attempt to pass
legislation guaranteeing net neutrality.
However, the Comcast ruling and strong Republican
opposition to net neutrality made legislative action very
unlikely. It is still not clear whether the FCC strategy to
reclassify broadband transmission will work.