A Common Sense Approach to Network Neutrality

[Commentary] There are two compelling sides to the Network Neutrality issue before the Federal Communications Commission that can be solved by cutting through the rhetoric and making a few common sense and objective decisions about what is at the crux of the problem. The power of discrimination lays solely in the hands of the Comcast's, AT&T's, Time Warner Cable's, Verizon's, and other providers of the ISP pipelines. This is a huge social responsibility for private sector companies in controlling the complexities of sharing access to all who ask. To solve the issue the FCC can take either of two paths in ensuring openness and fairness to all concerned, with both large and small stakes, in both getting where they need to go and receiving what needs to receive, via broadband. One path is to let the market sort itself out; in that encouraging competition within the marketplace between ISP providers will create less of a reason for providers to favor one entity over another or risk losing customers to the competition. An alternative path would be to mandate all ISP providers open their networks to competitors and set standards for download and upload speeds, thereby ensuring everyone is treated equal.