Net Neutrality: Towards a Co-Regulatory Solution

(Hardback)

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'Chris Marsden maneuvers through the hype articulated by Netwrok Neutrality advocates and opponents. He offers a clear-headed analysis of the high stakes in this debate about the Internet's future, and fearlessly refutes the misinformation and misconceptions that about' Professor Rob Freiden, Penn State University Net Neutrality is a very heated and contested policy principle regarding access for content providers to the Internet end-user, and potential discrimination in that access where the end-user's ISP (or another ISP) blocks that access in part or whole. The suggestion has been that the problem can be resolved by either introducing greater competition, or closely policing conditions for vertically integrated service, such as VOIP. However, that is not the whole story, and ISPs as a whole have incentives to discriminate between content for matters such as network management of spam, to secure and maintain customer experience at current levels, and for economic benefit from new Quality of Service standards. This includes offering a 'priority lane' on the network for premium content types such as video and voice service. The author considers market developments and policy responses in Europe and the United States, draws conclusions and proposes regulatory recommendations.

Reviews

'Net Neutrality is a must for both the specialist and the common reader' * Herbert Ungerer, former Deputy Director General of DG Competition *
Marsden provides excellent coverage of the net neutrality dispute from the perspective of both regulators and network operators. * International Journal of Communication *
This impressive work serves as a thoughtful contemporary critique of the range of efforts by industry and governments to keep pace with the exponential growth of the Internet as it enters the broadband age... This is a very readable book on a complex subject, suitable for senior communication policy scholars, legal scholars, policy makers, and anyone with an interest in the invisible yet profoundly influential regulatory scaffolding of the Internet. * Global Media Journal (Canadian Edition) *
Marsden has pitched his book to non-technical and non-lawyer audiences and does that fairly well. This is a solid background brief not only on net neutrality, narrowly defined, but on the broader issues that are intertwined in the same subject. * Jim Holmes, Telecommunications Journal of Australia *

Author Bio

Christopher T. Marsden is Professor of Media Law at the University of Sussex, UK. His books include Convergence in European Digital TV Regulation (edited with S. Verhulst, Blackstone Press, 1999), Regulating the Global Information Society (Routledge, 2000), and Codifying Cyberspace: Self Regulation of Converging Media (with D. Tambini and D. Leonardi, Routledge 2008).