Net Neutrality Debate: Internet Access and Costs Are Top Issues

[Commentary] President Barack Obama suggested classifying consumer broadband as a public utility, allowing the Federal Communications Commission to set precise proscriptions covering quality of service. In principle, this makes sense.

It is hard to overstate the importance of broadband to America’s economy and society. Free to do as they pleased, the clutch of companies that control access to the Internet would have enormous power to determine what information reaches Americans online. But would the cure be worse than the disease, entangling the Internet in an endless fight over regulation and perhaps slowing investment in one of the nation’s most vital services? To some extent, it depends on how you view the threat. For Gene Kimmelman, president of the advocacy group Public Knowledge, what’s at stake is no less than American democracy. Left free to decide which content flowed through their pipes, broadband providers could deploy their power in the service of their political preferences.

The more prosaic -- though actually trickier -- issue net neutrality is meant to address is about price. Should broadband providers be allowed to charge providers of content differentially for different speeds or tiers of services? Consumer groups and free speech advocates like Public Knowledge argue this is a surefire way to split the Internet into “haves” and “have-nots.” The smart kid with the clever new idea would no longer be able to compete with the zippy websites of established players in the fast lane. The Internet would lose its garage-based engine of creativity.

Still, the threats articulated by the staunchest defenders of a neutral Internet do not quite amount to an imminent danger, nor do they necessarily call for an all-out embrace of traditional regulation. Stopping unreasonable discrimination can be done at a lower cost, on a case-by-case basis that does not imperil perhaps the most important objective of all: extending the Internet to all Americans.