Net neutrality

Portuguese Internet service provider MEO offers smartphone contracts with monthly data limits, and sells additional monthly packages for particular data services.[1] Critics of EU net neutrality rules say loopholes allow data for different services to be sold under zero rating exceptions to data limits.[2] Consumer advocates of net neutrality have cited this pricing model as an illustration of Internet access with weak net neutrality protection.[3]

Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent transfer rates regardless of content, website, platform, application, type of equipment, source address, destination address, or method of communication (i.e., without price discrimination).[4][5] Net neutrality was advocated for in the 1990s by the presidential administration of Bill Clinton in the United States. Clinton's signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, an amendment to the Communications Act of 1934, set a worldwide example for net neutrality laws and the regulation of ISPs.[6][7][better source needed]

Supporters of net neutrality argue that it prevents ISPs from filtering Internet content without a court order, fosters freedom of speech and democratic participation, promotes competition and innovation, prevents dubious services, and maintains the end-to-end principle, and that users would be intolerant of slow-loading websites. Opponents argue that it reduces investment, deters competition, increases taxes, imposes unnecessary regulations, prevents the Internet from being accessible to lower income individuals, and prevents Internet traffic from being allocated to the most needed users, that large ISPs already have a performance advantage over smaller providers, and that there is already significant competition among ISPs with few competitive issues.

  1. ^ From MEO: "Pós-Pagos Unlimited". MEO. 14 December 2017. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017.
  2. ^ Hern, Alex (27 October 2015). "EU net neutrality laws fatally undermined by loopholes, critics say". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 February 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  3. ^ This particular image has been the subject of discussion in media including the following:
  4. ^ Easley, Robert F.; Guo, Hong; Kraemer, Jan (8 March 2017). "Easley, R., Guo, H., Krämer, J. – From Net Neutrality to Data Neutrality, Information Systems Research 29(2):253–272". SSRN 2666217.
  5. ^ Gilroy, Angele A. (11 March 2011). Access to Broadband Networks: The Net Neutrality Debate (Report). DIANE Publishing. p. 1. ISBN 978-1437984545.
  6. ^ "Statement on Signing the Telecommunications Act of 1996 | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  7. ^ Shumate, Brett; Wiley, Richard (28 August 2015). "Net Neutrality and the Rule of Law". The Federalist Society.