FCC: This is What a Net Neutrality Violation Looks Like

[Commentary] At its core, network neutrality is all about making sure that the company that connects you to the internet does not get to control what you do on the internet. Imposing data caps on consumers and then allowing wealthy content holders to buy their way around them is a recipe for stagnation online.

In its Open Internet Order, the Federal Communications Commission provided us with a taste of what may happen (“edge providers” are anyone who creates content like ESPN, Facebook, local governments, and personal websites):

• “a broadband provider may act to benefit edge providers that have paid it to exclude rivals”
• “broadband providers may have incentives to increase revenues by charging edge providers, who already pay for their own connections to the Internet, for access or prioritized access to end users.”
• “Broadband providers would be expected to set inefficiently high fees to edge providers because they receive the benefits of those fees but are unlikely to fully account of the detrimental impact on edge providers’ ability and incentive to innovate and invest, including the possibility that some edge providers might exit or decline to enter the market.”
• “Fees for access or prioritized access could trigger an ‘arms race’ within a given edge market segment. If one edge provider pays for access or prioritized access to end users, subscribers may tend to favor that provider’s services, and competing edge providers may feel that they must respond by paying too.”
• “Fees for access or prioritization to end users could reduce the potential profits that an edge provider would expect to earn from developing new offerings, and thereby reducing edge providers’ incentives to invest and innovate.”
• “if broadband providers can profitably charge edge providers for prioritized access to end users, they will have an incentive to degrade or decline to increase the quality of the service they provide to non-prioritized traffic.”