1. The Politics of Net Neutrality
November 12, 2013
The Politics of Net Neutrality

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Top ISPs in the USA (2011) Comcast Time Warner AT&T Cox Optimum
Charter
Verizon
Cable operators
Telephone companies
Source:

7. Top Global Web Sites (2011) Google Facebook YouTube Yahoo! Wikipedia
Baidu
Blogspot
Twitter

8. 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

9. 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

10. Proponents’ Videos
Tim Wu
Save the Internet
Vint Cerf

11. 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

12. 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
Tim
Berners-Lee
Gigi Sohn
Larry
Lessig

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

14. The Opponents’ Perspective on Net Neutrality
NCTA anti-NN ad
Fox News coverage
Glenn Beck
David Farber

15. 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

16. 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 committee vote
Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) voted against the amendment

17. 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

18. Popular Reaction to Ted Stevens statement

19. Telecom Lobbying Money Spent in the First Half of 2006
Category
Specific Firms and Organization
Amount in $ millions
Telephone Interests
AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth, and USTA
30.3
Cable Interests
Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, and NCTA
12.2
Internet Interests
Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Microsoft, Amazon.com
8.8
Total
51.3

20. 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.

21. 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 provides $7.2 billion for broadband infrastructure and mandates that the FCC prepare a National Broadband Plan

22. 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

23. 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”

24. Comcast Throttling of Bit-Torrent Traffic in 2007
Robb Topolski discovers delays in delivery of 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. New FCC Chair New Chair, Ted Wheeler as of October 2013
Telecom lobbyist background
Hired Gigi Sohn for policy advice

29. Conclusions
Net neutrality was framed by Republicans as a regulatory issue. Democratic framing was confusing.
Republicans and their supporters carried the day until June 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.