This issue has been posted by María Fernanda Viecens
Net neutrality has become one of the main regulators’ concerns on both sides of the ocean. While president Obama has nominated as FCC chief a strong supporter of Net neutrality rules, the US companies in the conflict attempt to shape European law in the hopes that US regulators will follow suit. Network neutrality began to be a major issue when telecommunications companies issued public statements asking for the ability to charge Internet content providers for access to Internet users.
Traditionally, transmission pricing of Internet traffic has been independent of the content of packets or the identity of the sender or receiver. However, the owners of the infrastructure for Internet access believe that they take up all the investments while some big operators that benefit economically from the network (eg, search engines or portals) do not contribute to costs. In particular, the Internet service providers (ISPs) argue that big operators should contribute to cover high investment costs of consumer broadband facilities and demand for a pricing scheme where, besides the charge for the basic service for transmission of bits, they would be allowed to set additional charges to some operators as Google, Yahoo or MSN for services applied to them.
Consequently, the debate focuses on the desirability of maintaining the current system based on network neutrality or changes that enable the updating of the business models. This new schedule would abolish the net neutrality of the current regime, where for instance, prices do not distinguish between packets depending on its use or the identities of uploader and downloader. Under net neutrality the ISPs may only charge to its end user customers. Otherwise, any ISP may also charge content providers to get access to its end users.
In what follows there is a list of papers related to this issue. Note that this is organized according to topics with which each article mainly deals.
Net Neutrality and Investment Incentives
Net Neutrality and Investment Incentives. Choi PC, Kim B-C. (2008) NET Institute WP 08-03.
A Two-Sided Market Analysis of Provider Investment Incentives with an Application to the Net-Neutrality Issue. Musacchio J, Schwartz G, Walrand J. (2009) Review of Network Economics; 8; 22-39.
Net neutrality: intra-platform vs. inter-platform competition
Does Europe Need Network Neutrality Rules?. Cave M, Crocioni P. (2007) International Journal of Communication, 1: 669-679.
Network Neutrality in the EU Chirico F, Van Der Haar I M, Larouche P. (2007), SSRN Working paper.
Net Neutrality, Unbundling, and their Effects on International Investment in Next-Generation Networks. Wallsten S, Hausladen S (2009), Review of Network Economics; 8; 90 – 112.
Net neutrality: a two sided market problem
Net Neutrality on the Internet: A Two-sided Market Analysis. Economides N, Tag J. (2007), NET Institute WP 07-45 2007.
A Two-Sided Market Analysis of Provider Investment Incentives with an Application to the Net-Neutrality Issue. Musacchio J, Schwartz G, Walrand J. (2009), Review of Network Economics; 8; 22-39.
A note on neutrality regulation: the waterbed effect in the net. Viecens MF. (2009), mimeo.
Net neutrality: price discrimination and single-connection restrictions
The Economics of Product Line Restrictions With an Application to the Network Neutrality Controversy. Hermalin B, Katz M. (2007), Information Economics and Policy; 19; 215-48.
Network Neutrality: Lessons from Transportation Review of Network Economics. Levinson D. (2009), Review of Network Economics; 8, 13 – 21.
Net neutrality: management and congestion
The Debate on Net Neutrality: A Policy Perspective. Cheng H K, Bandyopadhyay S, Guo H. (2009), Mimeo.
Costs of Neutral/Unmanaged IP Networks. Clarke RN. (2009), Review of Network Economics; 8; 61 – 89.
Overview
Network neutrality and the nature of competition between network operators. Kocsis, de Bijl. (2007), International Economics and Economic Policy; 4.
0 Responses to “The net neutrality debate: a literature review”