Net Neutrality

1
Net Neutrality

• Jared Jones

2
Whats to debate?

• What is a neutral network?
• Broadband network without restriction.
• Service Provider provides a dumb network
  connection no knowledge or restriction of
  content.
• Government (FCC) regulates the neutrality,
  ensures quality of service.
• Customer gets what he/she pays for.

3
What does it mean to us?

• Consumer receives quality of service he/she has
  paid for.
• ISP upholds QoS.
• ISP does not know what is being transmitted.
• No discrimination of any means.

4
How does this affect government and business?

• The government must provide laws to regulate
  Internet communications.
• Likely that Internet communications would fall
  under telecommunication service guidelines.
• Businesses are given the same QoS assurance as
  individual consumers.
• Businesses are able to purchase additional
  bandwidth and expect it to be high quality.

5
What does this mean for Virginia?

• Local ISPs Cox Communications, Comcast Cable,
  Verizon DSL, etc.
• VA residents assured equal treatment by local
  ISPs.
• Local businesses would gain from having the same
  QoS as residents.
• Local legislation? Remains to be seen.

6
Pro-Neutrality

• Important to remain neutral.
• Must provide equal services for residents of VA
  and US.
• Dumb networking ensures privacy for all.
• Discrimination of services.
• No tiering of network services.

7
Network Balancing

• Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska
• I just the other day got... an Internet was sent
  by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on
  Friday, I got it yesterday. Why? Because it got
  tangled up with all these things going on the
  Internet commercially.
• 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.

8
Serious Approach to Network Balancing

• Ensuring availability for all.
• Provides quality of service.
• Limitations in bandwidth create the immediate
  need for balancing.
• Keep ISPs honest in their practices government
  regulations to ensure fair balancing.

9
Proposed Network Balancing

• Tiering bandwidth
• Two- or more part structure to ensure levels of
  service.
• Lower, basic structure for basic networking
  email, database access, online shopping, etc.
• Higher, more robust structure for high-bandwidth
  networking streaming video, music, movies,
  peer-to-peer networking.
• Government regulations (likely the FCC) necessary
  to ensure a fair balancing strategy.

10
Pro-Neutrality

• Protects the control of data
• ISPs should not monitor communications to
  discriminate.
• User or organization gets what they paid for.
• Protecting consumers
• Dumb network ISPs do not know what they are
  transmitting from point A to point B. Nothing
  more than a messenger.

11
More Neutrality

• Quality of Service
• Ability for an ISP to provide network
  communications at the promised rate when in their
  utmost utility.
• ISPs are not balancing networks to offload
  bandwidth from those that use too much, as long
  as said provision is not in a contract.
• Level Playing Field
• Smaller, independent ISPs are able to provide for
  their customers.
• Larger ISPs are unable to discriminate against
  competitor advertising in communications.
• ISPs not able to use communications to their
  advantage in fair business strategy.

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Summary

• Pros of Neutrality
• Ensure quality of service.
• Overall fairness to consumers.
• Pros of Balancing
• Immediate solution to limited bandwidth concerns.
• Over time, balancing is not the solution.
  Networks must remain neutral to avoid
  discriminatory practices.