Network Neutrality: What is it?

Network neutrality is a phrase that has been used more and more frequently in the newspaper and television news programming. Reading and listening to the particiipants on both sides of the issue, one can see that it is an issue of importance (at least to these people), but can never quite understand what the big deal is. What is it?

These days, people use the internet for many services that, in the past, required physical means of transfer; text needed paper, video needed tape, music needed cds. These days, we can READ ANY NEWSPAPER in the world, DOWNLOAD AND PURCHASE ENTIRE BOOKS or WRITE LETTERS to our friends, families or colleagues. We can RENT MOVIES directly to our televisions, WATCH TELEVISION SHOWS and MUSIC VIDEOS, and SHARE HOME MOVIES with our friends and families. In addition to text and video, people can DOWNLOAD ENTIRE ALBUMS of music and even MAKE PHONE CALLS across the country for free on the internet. With all these "home uses," we also have to remember that businesses use the internet to protect and back-up their information, while also downloading updates for their systems. The internet is being used in ways that make our lives so much easier, but there are also concerns that the internet may be getting "crowded."

Many people are afraid that some of these activities are slowing down the internet for other uses. (Video requires a lot of "internet space" or bandwidth to be sent back and forth, while clicking on a news article does not.) If I want to read a couple articles online, and there are 5 households in my neighborhood with high definition movies being sent to their televisions, does that mean my page won't load as fast? Or if I want to see my niece across the country on webcam, will my video quality suffer because a neighbor is downloading an album on iTunes?

It is with these concerns in mind that the issue of "Net Neutrality" have come to the front of politician and technology geeks' minds. Net neutrality is a principle that promotes no restrictions for the internet by the government and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), like AT&T or Comcast. It basically advocates for ONE INTERNET, where all activites and applications are in the same "space." Is this a good idea or bad idea?

We'll go deeper into the pros and cons of Net Neutrality next week.