Also frequently referred to as 'Net Neutrality' or simply NN; internet users particularly in the UK could be forgiven for not having heard of this topic.
Net Neutrality is the principle that a network of any kind, though most commonly the network that links you and me with each other known as the internet, should be neutral. This means it doesn't prohibit any kind of site or usage, it doesn't favour one type of communication over another, and it can't be bribed to prioritise Company A's traffic over that of Company B.
That sounds fair, doesn't it? Well there are objections. One user, for example, might use services like Skype quite a lot to make calls and he might want his Internet Service Provider to be able to guarantee him a good service, despite his neighbour who spends all his time downloading music and films. In order to introduce some kind of guarantee, often described as 'Quality of Service' or QoS, his provider would have to prioritise certain internet traffic and not others.
Comcast, an ISP in the States, was recently found to be blocking or severely delaying file transfers using BitTorrent, presumably in an effort to restrict the bandwidth used - unfairly, in the eyes of some.
A commonly-held view by these providers is that in order to justify their large investment in infrastructure such as cable, those individuals and companies who use large amounts of bandwidth - Google, perhaps, ought to pay more for it. Clearly there's a possibility here for companies to collude and help each other out, at the expense of competition and consumer choice. For example, how would it be if a given service provider allowed you fast, privileged internet speeds when surfing a particular shopping website, and snail-like speeds on another? Where would you end up doing your shopping?
The issue of net neutrality has yet to take hold in a big way in the United Kingdom, but certainly in the States it's being discussed in places as political as Congress. In the UK we're lucky to have dozens of available ISPs - in most cases it would be easy for a user to switch if he/she disapproved of the service offered. In the US, however, competition is much more limited, and maybe this is a reason for the unrest.
One thing is for certain though, it's an important issue and if not handled correctly, could affect the very fabric of the internet as we know it. Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the web) truly believes that without protection of net neutrality, the death of the internet could be just around the corner.
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