November 12, 2013
THE POLITICS OF NET
NEUTRALITY
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
Internet’s 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 Ninja’s “What is Net Neutrality?” video
Eli Noam’s 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 carrier’s 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
Cable operators
 Cox
 Optimum
 Charter
 Verizon
Telephone companies
Source: http://isp-review.toptenreviews.com/
Top Global Web Sites (2011)
 Google
 Facebook
 YouTube
 Yahoo!
 Wikipedia
 Baidu
 Blogspot
 Twitter
Michael Powell’s 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
 consumers are entitled to access the lawful 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 nondiscrimination
 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
Organization
Telephone
Interests
AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth,
and USTA
Amount in $
millions
30.3
Cable Interests Comcast, Time Warner, Cox,
and NCTA
Internet
Google, Yahoo!, eBay,
Interests
Microsoft, Amazon.com
12.2
Total
51.3
8.8
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 Wyden’s 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 BitTorrent Traffic in 2007
 Robb Topolski discovers delays in delivery of BitTorrent 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 (2013)
 Verizon argues in a suit before the US Court of
Appeals that the FCC overstepped its authority in
reclassifying Internet service in its Open Internet
Order and violating Verizon’s 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.