net neutrality

net neutrality

(NETwork neutrality) A level playing field for Internet transport. It refers to the absence of restrictions or priorities placed on the type of content carried over the Internet by the carriers and ISPs that run the major backbones. It states that all traffic be treated equally; that packets are delivered on a first-come, first-served basis regardless from where they originated or to where they are destined.

Net neutrality became an issue as major search engines such as Google and Yahoo! increasingly generated massive amounts of traffic compared with other sites. It also became an issue because some carriers that offered subscription-based VoIP services were also transporting their competitors' VoIP traffic.

Very Controversial
The Internet has had net neutrality since its inception, which has leveled the playing field for all participants. This is a very contentious topic because major carriers have lobbied the FCC to eliminate network neutrality in order to charge large sites for their traffic.

Although it might seem reasonable to charge extra fees to sites with huge traffic, the implications down the road are more alarming. If net neutrality were abandoned entirely, at some point, owners of all Web sites might have to pay the carriers' fees to prevent their content from bogging down in a low-priority delivery queue.