Should the Government Regulate Net Neutrality?

Net neutrality is the principle that says all information flowing across the Internet should be treated equally. But with more people streaming data-rich video and playing online games, the Internet faces congestion concerns. Should carriers be able to sell multi-tiered access to heavy users? Should sites that generate massive traffic -- like Google and Yahoo! -- pay extra fees? The U.S. Government is examining Net Neutrality and its financial, legal and social implications. Do we need federal intervention to ensure fairness, or is this an issue for the market to work out?

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“There Isn't Enough Broadband Market Choice to Prevent Bad Actors ”
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There Isn't Enough Broadband Market Choice to Prevent Bad Actors

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The network owners have argued that Network Neutrality is unnecessary because there is sufficient competition in the broadband market to deter bad behavior. They argue that if Verizon degraded access to a site or discriminated against the use of one service in favor of another, they would anger customers who would move to another network operators in the area.

Consumers must have robust competition and multiple choices for this theory to work. But such competition does not exist, and it isn’t likely to exist in the foreseeable future.

Most Americans have access to two broadband providers — cable and DSL. That’s it. These two systems dominate, holding over 98 percent of the residential broadband market. The share of the market held by all the other broadband technologies combined — satellite, fixed wireless, mobile wireless, and broadband over power lines — has actually decreased over the last few years.

A significant chunk of the country has only one broadband provider, and 10 of millions of Americans have none at all. This is hardly a competitive market. There is insufficient competition between different technologies to produce any kind of deterrent should one operator block our access to the free flowing Internet.

And if both the local cable and telephone companies are using their networks to discriminate, the consumer is trapped. There is nowhere else to go.

That’s why nondiscrimination through Net Neutrality is so critical. Without Network Neutrality, America 's telephone and cable duopoly will leverage its market power over the network to gain control over the content and application markets, establishing a handful of wireline companies as the gatekeepers of the Internet.