How Open Should The Internet Be?

As the telecommunications sector has evolved over the years, consumers have been provided multiple choices for accessing high-speed broadband, both through wireline connections and wireless mobile devices. A recent New York Times op-ed claims otherwise, asserting that open access to the Internet, also known as network neutrality, should be enforced. The op-ed sites Netflix as an example of a company who is lobbying in support of the idea that all content must be allowed to travel through the Internet on equal terms.

In August 2011, Broadband for America’s Honorary Co-Chairmen Harold Ford Jr. and John Sununu, authored an op-ed that sets the record straight.  “The reality is that Netflix and similar services want a free ride on the networks built with more than $250 billion in design, engineering, manufacturing, construction and maintenance — a system that now provides broadband services to 95 percent of American households,” BfA’s co-chairmen wrote. “Obviously these massive transmissions over the Internet are not really free. Someone is paying for them. That ‘someone’ is the millions of broadband subscribers, whether or not they are Netflix customers. How is that fair?”