Net Neutrality, Radio, and You!

Perspectives from the TPRC conference

by Katie Ingersoll

10/13/2010

Earlier this month, at the Technology Policy and Research Conference academics, policy makers, and policy advocates gathered to discuss the latest research on net neutrality, broadband deployment, privacy and security, and other areas of information policy.

Technical aspects of Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality was a hot topic at the conference, but not all internet users have a strong conception of the nature and shape of the internet itself, which is at the heart of net neutrality. Radio as a transmission medium provides a good contrast to the way internet reaches us. Once a radio station is built and transmitting, the limitations on its ability to reach people are forces of nature such as rain, or physical realities such as mountains or distance. Within these limitations, a million people with radios can listen just as easily as one. The transmission of data over the internet is limited by the capacity and management of the infrastructure in place to carry that data. No one needs to build out the spectrum that radio waves travel through, but internet needs infrastructure to reach large numbers of people. And that infrastructure of the internet is controlled by the industries who own it.

As people invent and utilize more services on the internet, the amount of data that needs to be transmitted over privately owned networks increases, stretching their limits. In the long term, this can be solved by adding capacity to the network. However, the business model that makes the most sense for providers is to avoid these costs by attempting to manage network traffic. They do this by dividing network capacity among users with different criteria during high usage periods so that the same network can support the new types of uses that are becoming popular, like internet phone programs, gaming, Peer to Peer filesharing, and streaming video. Some of these “network management techniques” are based on keeping individual users from using up large amounts of capacity and others are designed to privilige more time sensitive data, such as streaming audio.

Economic Arguments

Much of the discussion of net neutrality in policy circles takes place among economists, which makes it important to understand the economic arguments prevalent in this debate. Although in the long run it makes sense to build more network capacity, some economists argue that ISPs will never have incentives to increase network capacity, unless they can profit from the expanded use of their networks. This increase in profits will drive investment in the most current technological solutions to build network capacity. ISPs could make more money through network management, and this is where most of the controversy in network neutrality debates lies. Network management practices could give priority to certain content providers of content, or a set of users who pay higher fees. For example, if Google introduces a new service that takes up lots of bandwidth, they may strike a deal with ISPs which would prioritize data packets needed for that service. Or, ISPs could sell tiered services allowing users to pay more to have their data packets prioritized, guaranteeing them higher internet speeds. These money making practices would increase profits, theoretically helping ISPs to invest in their networks, but they would also fundmentally change the nature of the internet.

There are also economic arguments for net neutrality regulations forbidding these kinds of discrimination practices. The internet as a service creates economic benefits beyond the profits for ISPs, or even individual consumers. These benefits lie in both the range of indutries that spring up around the internet, and also the large number of social benefits that the internet creates that are independent of economic activity. All of these benefits are reffered to in theoretical economics as “spillover effects.” This wide range of endeavors is facilitated by content producers (like independent media makers) being able to use the internet to reach users and know they they have the same basic ability to connect with people that larger companies have. If ISPs enter into deals with large content providers, called “vertical relationships,” this could create barriers for other groups (like community radio stations) to “compete” on the internet. This situation is called “vertical foreclosure” in economics.

Participatory Media Outlets are Content Providers

If your community radio station starts a webstream, you know that once it's available online and your server has enough bandwidth to support the service, users will universally be able to access your content. This could change if providers begin to prioritize content from providers they have struck a deal with. This prioritization will be to the detriment of your stations webstream, and to the average user the ISP's actions will be invisible. Suddenly your webstream doesn't work as well, through no action of your own, but because of a relationship large providers have with the ISP.

In the policy arena a line is often drawn between stakeholders like Google or Verizon, and “consumers.” Those who provide a service or product are seen as distinct from those who purchase or use it. In the context of participatory media this distinction is problematic. The internet allows communities to make and distribute their own media, as well as consume it. You have a role in this debate not only as a user of the internet, but as a content provider.

These are just a sample of the range of technical and economic issues at play in Net Neutrality which were presented at the TPRC conference. The conference papers are available on the website, if you want to delve deeper. Here are few selections that informed this article:

Spillovers and Network Neutrality. Christiaan Hogendorn, Wesleyan University. (PDF) 

Dis-Empowering Users vs. Maintaining Internet Freedom: Network Management and Quality of Service (QoS).  Benjamin Lennett, New America Foundation. (PDF) 

For more information about the current legal and regulatory proposals on net neutrality check out these pages from Free Press, and Public Knowledge.