President Obama released a video this morning coming out in support of full net neutrality. The debate over net neutrality is ongoing as the FCC weighs regulations that could implement net neutrality or a two-tier system. Analysts believe that FCC chairman Tom Wheeler supports the two-tier system, however. Under net neutrality principles, providers, such as Verizon and Comcast, have to treat all content coming across their pipelines as equal. Under the two-tier system, some can pay for faster speeds for their content. Proponents of this system argue that no one gets hurt, some just get more of a benefit and that is more free-market. However, opponents say that there is nothing stopping the providers from throttling the standard lane and providing the normal speeds to those who pay. A third proposed system is laissez faire, or no government intervention. Under this system, all content could be treated in any way by providers and they could charge whatever they want to whatever content publishers they want. One of the biggest names in this fight is Netflix, which has long argued for net neutrality. However, a court decision on net neutrality has left the Internet in the third system for the time being. This has caused Netflix to sign delivery agreements with providers until the event that net neutrality is brought back. Some companies, however, do have to abide by net neutrality regardless of the ruling. As part of the conditions for regulatory approval of the merger, Comcast/NBCUniversal has to abide by the FCC’s Open Internet policy for several more years.
