Business - Written Friday, January 12, 2007 by Paul Artiuch - 1 Comment

First legislation introduced in support of net neutrality

This week, the first piece of legislation was introduced in congress preventing internet providers from charging higher premiums to certain content providers. The net neutrality issue has pitted telecommunications and cable companies such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, who own the pipes of the internet, against companies such as Google, Yahoo and Amazon who rely on them to indiscriminately deliver their content and services to users. 

The internet providers argue that net neutrality removes their incentive to expand and upgrade their networks. As Don and Anthony outline in the book, the open nature of the internet is the reason for the explosion of online services and the accompanying creation of wealth. Net neutrality helps content providers make better decisions about new services that they want to roll out without having to negotiate the cost of delivering them. It is up to consumers to decide which internet services they want to use and pay for the appropriate internet access.  The incentive for internet providers to build and maintain robust networks lays in the consumer demand for internet content.  While abolishing net neutrality would allow internet providers to play consumers off of content companies, the effective result would be fewer services and smaller demand for bandwidth. While the debate is not likely to be settled in the near future, legislation such as this is a step in the right direction.