Internet 3.0: Identifying Problems and Solutions to the Network Neutrality Debate

Abstract

This paper will examine the network neutrality debate with an eye toward refuting and dismissing the many false and misleading claims and concentrating on the real problems occasioned by the Internet's third evolution. The paper accepts as necessary and proper many types of price and quality of service discrimination. However the paper identifies other types of discrimination, which operators can obscure, that constitute unlawful and anticompetitive trade practices.

The paper identifies best practices in lawful discrimination that should satisfy most network neutrality goals without creating disincentives that might dissuade ISPs from building the infrastructure needed for Internet 3.0 services. The paper concludes that legitimate concerns about unlawful network discrimination warrants the presence of a referee to remedy abuses before irreparable marketplace competitive harm occurs and well before a court of law could act. The paper recommends that the FCC require ISPs to submit network usage reports that the Commission could use to determine the causes of congestion and other types of service disruption.