Net Neutrality – Boring Topic or Something That Might Really Matter?

On November 20, new FCC regulations regarding internet access went into effect and were immediately challenged in court by internet service providers. Previously, both the House of Representatives and the Senate attempted to pass a bill prohibiting the rules from taking effect. The news has left many internet users with two questions – what is net neutrality and do we really care?

Net neutrality is the concept that all users have a right to use the internet for whatever purpose they need it for, whether that be downloading video or doing homework, and no one should interfere with a user’s rights to access data and websites. Internet service providers (ISPs) and other critics have voiced concern that media downloads, video in particular, place a strain on the internet’s infrastructure and argue that some sort of regulation needs to be in place, whether it be a legal regulation or extra fees charged to heavy network users, both of which make the internet non-neutral. The FCC rules are an attempt to prohibit internet providers from blocking certain types of traffic or specific websites. The main reason the FCC created the net neutrality rules is, there was evidence that some ISPs were blocking traffic to prevent large data exchanges between users. In defense of traffic blocking, the ISPs point out that a small number of users account for a large portion of data on the internet and their overuse can slow down the connection for the rest of the network’s users.

Which brings us to the second question, is this just politics or is it something that really matters to the average user? It might, considering how many people are using the internet for Netflix, Hulu and other video on demand downloads. Depending on how accurate either side is in their argument, you may find yourself either frustrated at restrictions and higher fees for video and music access or frustrated that your internet connection seems slower because the family down the street is catching up on American Idol.

The debate over video’s impact on internet speed is nothing new and has been in the media for some time. In early 2008, the New York Times ran a story about the issue. Some analysts, according to the article, were predicting that a big slowdown or even a crash was coming as early as 2011. The predictions were based on industry studies that saw patterns showing video use exceeding all other internet use combined and this led many prognosticators to predict that, at best, internet users were going to have to get used to slower speeds. This debate was renewed in late 2010, when Slate Magazine ran an article discussing the amount of space Netflix in particular was taking up during prime time hours. The main argument in that article is only 2% of all internet users are using Netflix, but they comprise 20% of the traffic so it stands to reason that as more people use the service, they will choke the available bandwidth. Home Media Magazine recently reported that Netflix is now up to 32% of all traffic as of the third quarter of 2011.

So what is the bottom line? Cisco, a manufacturer of routers and other network hardware, claims that video will account for about 50% of all internet traffic by 2015. The same report actually measures the amount of traffic predicted in zettabytes, which is three steps above gigabytes (past terabytes, petabytes and exabytes). It is true that increased use of video uses up bandwidth and some form of infrastructure upgrade is needed, but the internet did not “break” at some point in 2011 as some had predicted. Add into the equation a few other factors, such as business and wireless use of the internet and the more important debate will be if, and how much, regulation is needed to keep the internet working the way it does now. The biggest issue most supporters of net neutrality laws cite is those users are not targets of regulation like the home user, but are potentially bigger contributors to the slowdowns that are predicted to happen. On the business user side, corporate video conferencing and the TV/movie industry’s use of the internet for editing and distributing video are an unseen use of bandwidth. And wireless networks eventually communicate to the wired world to transmit YouTube video and streaming music to cell phones and tablets. In both cases, most people don’t think of the transmissions as internet traffic, but they really do use the same network as traditional e-mail and websites.

- by Laura N.