For more than a decade, the debate over net neutrality has framed the shape of the Internet’s future. Net neutrality refers to the principle that every Web site and every user—whether a multinational corporation or you—has the right to the same Internet network speed and access. The idea of an open and neutral network has existed since the origins of the Internet, but there had never been a formal policy until 2010, when the Federal Communications Commission approved a limited set of net neutrality rules. Still, the debate forges on.

The dispute over net neutrality and the future of the Internet is dominated by some of the biggest communications corporations. These major telephone and cable companies—Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and CenturyLink—control 98 percent of broadband access in the United States through DSL and cable modem service. They want to offer faster connections and priority to clients willing to pay higher rates, and provide preferential service for their own content or for content providers who make special deals with them—effectively eliminating net neutrality. For example, tiered Internet access might mean that these companies would charge customers more for data-heavy services like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, or iTunes. These companies argue that the profits they could make with tiered Internet access will allow them to build expensive new networks, benefiting everyone.

But supporters of net neutrality—mostly bloggers, video gamers, educators, religious groups, unions, and small businesses—argue that the cable and telephone giants actually have incentive to rig their services and cause net congestion in order to force customers to pay a premium for higher speed connections. They claim that an Internet without net neutrality would hurt small businesses, nonprofits, and Internet innovators, who might be stuck in the “slow lane” and not be able to afford the fastest connections that large corporations can afford. Large Internet corporations like Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, Microsoft, Skype, and Facebook also support net neutrality because their businesses depend on their millions of customers having equal access to the Web.

In late 2010, the FCC adopted rules on net neutrality, noting “the Internet’s openness promotes innovation, investment, competition, free expression, and other national broadband goals.”³⁴ On a split vote, the FCC approved firm net neutrality guidelines for fixed-line broadband ISPs (like cable and DSL connections), but required less strict net neutrality rules for wireless broadband connections (mobile phone companies). Both fixed-line and mobile providers must disclose their network management practices and are prohibited from blocking sites or applications. However, while the FCC prohibited fixed-line providers from unreasonable discrimination, mobile phone companies are exempt from this rule, and they are also allowed to offer tiered service prices for data packages. The FCC explained that these differences in rules were in part due to the fact that the mobile industry is more competitive. But net neutrality proponents have argued that these rules don’t go far enough, while opponents have tried to get the courts and Congress to overturn the FCC’s policy. In late 2013, the case was scheduled to be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia circuit.