In the United States, Google Inc. has been pressing federal regulators to supply clear guidance to broadband network owners regarding acceptable ways of controlling Internet traffic.Google believe that this guidance would "help ensure that broadband networks remain open platforms to the Internet" and sent an email to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to request it.
This Friday, the FCC is expected to vote that Comcast Corp. infringed agency policy over the internet provider's management of peer-to-peer traffic from BitTorrent users. Comcast is said to have secretly throttling BitTorrent traffic on its network. Comcast originally denied this but later admitted its actions and defended them as an attempt to slow down uploads in order to manage congestion on its network.
In March, Comcast said it would stop targeting specific applications but would instead focus on users who use more bandwidth than regular users. Presumably most of these will be BitTorrent users.
The Comcast controversy is only part of a bigger issue of Net Neutrality. Large cable operators and telecommunications companies have been barred from speeding up the internet for preferred business partners and blocking or slowing down the content of rivals.
In the US, preserving net neutrality has become a major issue, with all the major Democratic challengers running for Senate pledging support. Critically, the two main presidential nominees, Barrack Obama and John McCain have taken opposing sides over the issue. Democrat Obama is in favour of Net Neutrality, Republican McCain is against.
Whilst there have been similar problems and issues between users and Internet service providers (ISPs) on this side of the Atlantic, no big players have yet stepped in to attempt to stick up for Net Neutrality. The issue here is gaining momentum, however.
As media and telecoms companies continue to consolidate, there will be more overlap between online and offline services which will inevitably cause more friction. The release of BBC iPlayer recently, for example, meant ISPs saw much increased bandwidth usage but no extra income. Bandwidth consuming services like Google's YouTube have grown hugely over the last few years but ISPs have generally seen little or no benefit. Some of the ISPs are owned by media and telecoms companies who are also losing profits on TV advertising as a result. This, combined with low revenues due to high competition in the sector, means that the battle lines are being drawn over Net Neutrality.
The outcome of the Net Neutrality issue could have profound effects on the Internet we know and love. Currently, building an application like iPlayer or BitTorrent and making it public does not need permission from any authority. This is why there is such a wide array of products like MSN messenger, email, VoIP (Skype etc.) available and why internet technology moves so quickly and is so innovative. Without Net Neutrality, the Internet Provider would have the power to decide what works and what doesn't on their network.
