Abstract

Net neutrality is the concept/belief that all traffic on a network should be treated equally and indiscriminately. Meaning, ISPs would not be able to slow, block, or speed up the process of delivery at their own will. Net neutrality laws came to an end in 2018, but there is now the debate of how ISPs should be regulated and what the government’s role should be. Other discussions on the topic pertain to the various opinions on net neutrality as well as the different stakeholders. Also, there are a variety of opinions of how net neutrality should be handled in the future.

Introduction

Times these days have become drastically different from our preceding generations as the last 30 years have resulted in the age of technology. With the advancements in technology over recent year, the internet has made major growth and improvements over time along with it. As a result, people have become highly dependent on the internet for their means of education, living, entertainment, and other aspects of life. Internet Service Providers (ISP for short) have benefited greatly as well by generating revenue through provided internet service to businesses, homes, and facilities. Generally, it was safe to assume that ISPs would treat all traffic indiscriminately and equally. This idea is known as net neutrality before referred to as common carrier regulations in the last ’90s and early 2000s. For homeowners with the internet, the idea of net neutrality is great because it guarantees that their traffic will not be discriminated against by big, up-and-coming companies that provide bandwidth for their consumers. However, this sense of security did not last too long as net neutrality was repealed two years after its official start in the United States. This meant that there is now nothing to stop ISPs from throttling, blocking, filtering, or messing with their consumers’ data. There has been discussion on what the effects will be of the repeal of it as well as how ethical the repeal of net neutrality is. Hopefully, this paper will give insight into the background and history of net neutrality, viewpoints, stakeholders, and its importance in IT.

Timeline and Background of Net Neutrality

Net neutrality has been debated over and looked at over the recent years, but it all started around 20 years ago. It was the result of the FCC using its power to make sure the internet remained a place that is open and equal for its consumers. The name was coined in 2002 and was upheld across various election cycles for some time. The Bush and Obama administrations pushed to enforce net neutrality as they understood its importance for the United States. In 2015, it took multiple appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court by the FCC’s chairman, Tom Wheeler, to get the rules of net neutrality to keep having an effect. However, in December of 2017 the new FCC chairman, Ajit Pai repealed the Open Internet Order which took Net Neutrality out of effect. The result ultimately leads to a lost sense of security for consumers as they now have no way to ensure their bandwidth is treated fairly or ethically. Lindsay Stern, who wrote an article on the effects of net neutrality states, “ The American public wants certainty that after paying among the highest prices in the world for broadband service, they can actually access the content they want online, without the cable or telephone company blocking or slowing content, or cutting a deal with another content provider to prioritize services other than those the consumer wants to access” (2019). I think Stern’s interpretation of what the American consumers worry over the bill is extremely accurate. As it now stands, ISPs will likely begin to throttle, limit, discriminate and negatively affect their consumers’ data and receive no repercussion for it. In 2021, there is still fighting for the reinstatement of the Open Internet Order and American consumers are extensively showing their disappointment over the initial repeal in 2017.

Stakeholders and Impacts of Ethical Issue

The major stakeholders for net neutrality have been broken down into a few major categories. These categories include “ Broadband Internet Access Providers, users, platforms, content providers, device makers, and the government” (Buell, 2018). These groups have been defined and interviewed to create an understanding of what the United States should do with internet laws at this point. They also, had the various stakeholders hold a group discussion where the topics included defining the principles of an open internet, net neutrality, management for net neutrality, and who should ensure net neutrality should be upheld. This group would able to come to an understanding about the definition of net neutrality, but discussion truly opened when talking about the principles of what an open internet should be. Also, this group was able to accept either the FCC or the FTC as the organization to uphold net neutrality. The impact of the repeal has led to ISPs having the freedom to act unethically while making their businesses more profitable. ISPs are now able to be more competitive with one another because each service does not have to be held to the same standards.

Various Viewpoints on Net Neutrality

There are issues with both sides of net neutrality that need to be addressed. The repeal of net neutrality gives ISPs freedom to discriminate against certain traffic or protocols. This ultimately means that depending on who you are you may have your traffic filtered, throttled, and hindered, while the ISP may show preferential treatment to someone else. It is safe to assume that all companies are not looking to discriminate heavily against their consumers, but there are examples of some companies behaving unethically with their services. The other side of the argument is that the repeal of net neutrality ensures that the market will be protected and that it is more profitable for ISPs to take this approach. Also, ISPs insist that the current tiered options for networks will lead to better speeds and connections for everyone in the long run. There are pros and cons to each side, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for the U.S. to come to an agreement on the subject.

Importance of Net Neutrality in IT

This is important for IT due to the potential of having a company’s bandwidth throttled down by their ISP. Also, there are is the potential for ISPs to show favoritism to some of the companies depending on their relationships with each other. An example of this would be when Netflix had their data throttled by Comcast throughout recent years. When data slows down and their service is becoming worse due to an ISP throttling them, I imagine that the IT department for Netflix had to find a solution quickly to resolve their issues. Net neutrality would be nice to have for any IT department because that would ensure that their data and bandwidth should perform consistently across businesses.

Ideal Outcome Regarding Net Neutrality

The ideal outcome for net neutrality is dependent on who you are in the situation. Those with home networks generally would rather net neutrality be a thing since that will guarantee equal and fair bandwidth across the United States. Generally, most people would agree that the internet should be this way and that encouraging net neutrality is an ethically correct thing to do. However, if you are someone in the business of telecommunications, you would probably prefer that net neutrality stays repealed. This is due to their businesses being more profitable, competitive, and marketable with net neutrality gone.

Summary and Conclusion

Net neutrality has been a topic heavily debated over in recent years. In general, the public is in support of net neutrality as they have a right to desire equal and fair bandwidths for the internet. With the repeal of net neutrality, telecommunication businesses have become more profitable to the detriment of their consumers. Consumers now have options to pay different prices for tiered services, but ISPs still hold all the power over their product's performance. The repeal of net neutrality has led to an outcry by many Americans, but they have not been able to get net neutrality reinstated. As time goes on more people are becoming aware of what is happening with the situation which may lead to different internet laws in the future.