From Orgwiki

(See also Net Neutrality, the original wiki page)

Contents 1 What is this? 2 Layout 3 Current examples 3.1 Access 4 Resources

[edit] What is this?

ORG is putting together a briefing pack on net neutrality, in the spirit of our previous ones on term extension and e-voting. This page is a kind of staging area for organizing and drafting it. Dan is putting it together, but by all means help me out!

[edit] Layout

(Details as of this revision incorporate significant info from Marsden's Net Neutrality and Consumer Access to Content

The briefing pack should

• Start with a layman's (i.e., journalist's) guide to how the Internet works now, how discrimination would work, and what "network neutrality" as a proposal would mean.
  • Include summary of what the current regulatory landscape looks like (why we're where we are)
    • UK
      • Local loop unbundling
        • Ofcom moves to ease barriers to switching between providers [1]
    • Europe
      • Proposed Directive amending the 2002 Directive (Nov 2007) ([2])
        • Broadly favors a transparency solution
      • 2002 Universal Service Directive
  • Include discussion of what other EU countries are doing on the issue
  • Include brief summary of nations elsewhere (US: coupla bills, Obama's platform; Japan, whatever they're up to) to show that we're not asking the UK to get out in front of a brand new issue.
• Anticipate and respond to arguments against NN:
  • Lay out conditions (econ. and legal) under which ISPs would start discriminating
    • Apply today's situation to that model: will they discriminate in reality?
      • This will let us say, "Here's why acting now is important!"
      • ISPs will have to enter the content business if they are to invest in next gen broadband [3]
• Describe ORG's ideal telecom access policy
  • i.e., what flavor of net neutrality would work best?
  • Two possible forms: ex ante (rules for entire industry) and ex post (individualized antitrust against individual offenders)
    • Ex post won't necessarily set "precedent" for other telcos; without reporting rules, enforcement would require expensive evidence gathering
  • Too much regulation can stifle competition by increasing barriers to entry
  • Must be carefully managed and avoid bureaucratic drift; future technology should "outgrow" today's regs cleanly when bandwidth is more plentiful
    • This could be as simple as a time limit or a rule conditioned on an objective measure of shortage
• Apply today's situation to the status quo: at what level should the policy be implemented?

[edit] Current examples

These could be useful for illustrating the scope of the threat, as well as particular types of discrimination:

• PlusNet have begun discriminating between applications, with higher tariffs allocated better priorities on the same applications. Rate sheet
• Virgin Media restricts top downloaders' bandwidth during day hours
  • ...But seeks the mantle of transparency nonetheless
  • See previously: Virgin Media's CEO not a big fan of net neutrality
• AT&T claims Internet will hit "physical capacity" in 2010; resists gov't involvement
• ISPs don't like iPlayer
• Vodafone blocks Skype on 3G
• Time-Warner (US) begins bandwidth-metered service

[edit] Access

• It's >£800 per customer to fill in "notspots" in Scotland's broadband coverage

[edit] Resources

Marsden, Christopher (2007). Net Neutrality and Consumer Access to Content, SCRIPTed Vol 4 No 4, 407–435, available at http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/script-ed/vol4-4/marsden.asp.

Kocsis, Viktória & Paul W.J. de Bijl (9 Mar. 2007). Network Neutrality and the Nature of Competition Between Network Operators, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=976882.

Bauer, Johannes M. (2007). Dynamic Effects of Network Neutrality, International Journal of Communication vol 1, 531–547, available at http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/156/79.

Frieden, Rob (2007). Internet 3.0: Identifying Problems and Solutions to the Network Neutrality Debate, International Journal of Communication vol 1, 461–492, available at http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/160/86.

Ariño, Mónica (2008). Remarks at Fourth Internet, Law and Politics Congress, session III, in Barcelona, 2–3 June 2008, as transcribed by Ismael Peña-López, available at http://ictlogy.net/20080602-4th-internet-law-and-politics-congress-iii-content-on-the-internet-regulation-or-self-regulation/ (speaking for Ofcom on the topic of self-regulation and the Internet).

Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2002/22/EC on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks, Directive 2002/58/EC concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector and Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 on consumer protection cooperation; COM (2007) 698; available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!DocNumber&type_doc=COMfinal&an_doc=2007&nu_doc=698&lg=en

(Intro to the above: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/tomorrow/index_en.htm)

Eccles, Richard, & Karen Nightingale (2005). Assessment of Significant Market Power in the UK Electronic Communications Markets, available at http://www.twobirds.com/english/publications/articles/Assessment_of_smp_in_the_UK_electronic_communications_markets.cfm

Several presentations from a 2006 NN workshop in London: http://www.cambridge-mit.org/events/article/default.aspx?objid=8

Hou, Liyang, Peggy Valcke, David Stevens, & Eleni Kosta (2008). Network neutrality in Europe: innovation thanks to or in spite of the law?, presented at the EuroCPR Conference 2008, available at www.law.kuleuven.be/icri/publications/1042EUROCPR2008_NetNeutralityLegal_HouValckeStevensKosta_paper.pdf

Odlyzko, Andy (2008). Threats to the Internet: Too Much or Too Little Growth?, Internet Evolution, available at http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=592&doc_id=146747&

http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/caps.htm Independent information gathered on ISPs' caps.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/ISP_marketshare.htm Point-Topic's 2006 data on UK ISPs' marketshare

Broadband Stakeholder Group (2008), A Framework for Evaluating the Value of Next Generation Broadband, available at http://www.broadbanduk.org/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_view/gid,1009/Itemid,63/

Hogge, Becky, The battle for net neutrality, Open Democracy, 9 May 2006, available at http://www.opendemocracy.net/node/3519

Bohm, Nicholas & Richard Clayton, Open letter to the Information Commissioner, 17 March 2008, available at http://www.fipr.org/080317icoletter.html

Herrero-Martinez, Erica, EU Commission wants UK government to probe targeted advertis-ing, Dow Jones Newswire, 16 July 2008, available at http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/marches/eu-commission-wants-uk-government-to-probe-targeted-488767

Bearne, Suzanne, Consumer fears over ad targeting threaten ISPs, New Media Age, 17 July 2008, available at http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/38754/Consumer+fears+over+ad+targeting+threaten+ISPs.html

Fisher, Frank, Caught in the web, The Guardian, 17 January 2008, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jan/17/caughtintheweb

Bergmayer, John (2007), Are network filters the 80% solution?, Public Knowledge, http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/1196

Scott, Dougal (Director of Policy Development, Ofcom) at the Westminster e-Forum, 20 Mar. 2007, available at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/speeches/2007/03/regulate

Proposed US ACTA multi-lateral intellectual property trade agreement (2007), http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Proposed_US_ACTA_multi-lateral_intellectual_property_trade_agreement_(2007)