Stephan Engl

Net VS Neutrality

technology trust organizations

White A-Priority envelope and blue pen on a light tabletop.

One of the underlying principles of the Internet is net neutrality: companies providing Internet access should treat all sources of data equally.1

A domain where this “equality principle” does not hold true is the postal service. The picture above shows a Swiss A-Priority letter. In 2010, A-Priority letters were due the next day, while B-Priority letters were due no later than the third working day after mailing.2 Naturally, A-Priority letters are more expensive than B-Priority letters. Every time you send a letter you have to reassess how important the message and its speed of delivery are.

Now transfer that idea to a much larger ecosystem.

Let’s assume for a second you have to pay to get premium/fast access to the Interwebs. How does this affect with whom you communicate, what you communicate and whether you communicate at all? And to a more strategic extent: What is the role of ISPs in all of this? While lane differentiation might give service providers another revenue stream, they would also become some sort of ambivalent gatekeepers. To what extent would that impact the ISPs’ brand recognition?

Who is eligible to supervise net neutrality? Who keeps tabs on the controllers?

  1. Tim Wu develops the network-neutrality concept in “Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination”, Journal on Telecommunications & High Technology Law 2 (2003), p. 141. 

  2. Swiss Post defines punctual delivery as the next day for A Mail and no later than the third working day after mailing for B Mail in its Annual Report 2010, pp. 82–83 (PDF).