Competition
In many areas of the world, internet services are a monopoly or are controlled by a few large telecom companies. Net neutrality is designed to prevent telecom companies from using this position to block competition. For example, a telecom company could force users to use their streaming media services by making all competing streaming media services slow.Political Freedom
Fully implemented, net neutrality prevents companies or governments from silencing critics by blocking content.Economic Growth
Net neutrality may promote economic growth by awarding innovation. For example, customers can pick the search engine they prefer as opposed to having it decided by their telecom company.Equipment Usage
Net neutrality has been interpreted to allow users to attach whatever devices they see fit to their internet connection such as a computer of their choosing.Security
Net neutrality allows customers to use security tools such as VPN to connect to an office network. In some countries, telecom companies have blocked VPN at times because it may prevent the telecom company from viewing your traffic.Price Discrimination
Net neutrality prevents telecoms from implementing certain types of price discrimination such as charging users more to stream media or use a VPN over their connection.Network Management
Telecom firms may state that they need to slow down or ban certain types of access to manage their network. There are other ways to manage network capacity such as simply imposing bandwidth limits and charging for exceeding such limits.Knowledge
The public internet is the most significant collection of knowledge ever assembled. Nations, states or cities that have only a partial view of the internet may be at a knowledge disadvantage. For example, if a local telecom company offers only one social network platform because that company paid a fee to exclude all others.| Overview: Net Neutrality | ||
Type | ||
Definition | The principle that all internet traffic is treated equally regardless of content, user, device, protocol or source. | |
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