Net Neutrality

Adam Bullen Public Seen by 179

With the FCC in the US voting on net neutrality and the Europe recently voting to protect net neutrality. This is a timely issue.

What is the current state of net neutrality in NZ?

I assume all PPNZ members support net neutrality.

Adam Bullen

Wed 21 May 2014 9:26AM

Nice point bruce

Andrew McPherson

Wed 21 May 2014 7:50PM

QoS should be left to the individual at the end of the connection, not the ISP.
That said, I would only expect QoS on cellular networks to avoid problems with voice delays and text lag.

David Peterson

Fri 23 May 2014 9:17AM

Needs to more clearly stated what is meant by "Net Neutrality" and what it is proposed PPNZ would do about it.

Bruce Kingsbury Wed 21 May 2014 12:25AM

As long as we're clear on the difference between 'Net (non)Neutrality' and 'Quality of Service' then I support net neutrality. I'm on an unlimited Orcon connection which is only viable/usable because bittorrent is given lower priority than http which is given lower priority than VoIP. If your idea of net nutrality is that all protocols have to be given equal priority then expect your web to be slow and your VoIP to be totally unusable while bittorrent sucks up all available bandwidth to be perhaps a few percent faster.

Hubat McJuhes Wed 21 May 2014 1:16AM

@brucekingsbury I fully agree on the advantages of QoS and I would not consider it a violation of net neutrality, as long as it is implemented without deep package inspection.

The above mentioned study has pointed out the massive potential for new innovations (++) if QoS was to be commonly established vs the harm (-) to competition and innovation that the 'two-lane-system' produces.
They have also mentioned that all ISP's that have been questioned where 'extremely skeptical' about the chances to actually get it going across ISP's (which would be necessary to unleash the full potential to develop new, innovative products and business models).

David Peterson Fri 23 May 2014 9:19AM

I disagreeing more or less based on what Bruce said plus other factors, mainly the proposal needs to be more properly defined than it is. Even though broadly speaking I'm supportive of the idea in general.

Hubat McJuhes Sat 24 May 2014 3:33AM

@davidpeterson Any suggestions how to differentiate our stance on different definitions?

The above mentioned study provides a good entry point into that discussion. You may want to refer to suggested definitions in there‽

If you want to provide other meaningful sources, I am more than happy to study those as well. (Articles full of unfounded, self-contradicting opinions based on assumptions and speculations presented as facts do not count, though)

Hubat McJuhes Sun 25 May 2014 6:56AM

I would suggest to adopt the definition for net neutrality as outlined in the introduction of the attached statement by the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue.
Also note the chapter about network management, which addresses the concerns of @brucekingsbury , @andrewmcpherson, @adambullen and @davidpeterson as well as my own.

Poll Created Mon 2 Jun 2014 6:32AM

PPNZ calls for policies that will promote net neutrality Closed Thu 5 Jun 2014 6:09AM

Outcome

by Hubat McJuhes Tue 25 Apr 2017 5:22AM

PPNZ very clearly agrees with the definition of net neutrality as outlined by the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue and their proposed minimal quality standards.

In order to ensure that ISPs and communications networks do not unfairly limit the applications and information available to consumers, PPNZ calls for policies that will promote net neutrality. As defined here, net neutrality is a state in which users have the freedom to access the content, services, applications and devices of their choice.

In a neutral network, consumers:
1. are entitled to an Internet connection of the speed and reliability advertised to them.
2. are entitled to an Internet connection that enables them to
- send and receive content of their choice
- use services and run applications of their choice
- connect hardware and use software of their choice that do not harm the
network.
3. are entitled to an Internet connection that is free from discrimination with regard to
type of application, service, or content or based on sender or receiver address.1
4. are entitled to competition among network, application, service, and content providers
5. are entitled to know what network management practices are deployed by their
network providers

These principles may be subject to reasonable network management practices, which are practices that are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of the network. Reasonable network management practices include measures that address legitimate congestion and traffic management issues, as well as quality of service measures chosen by a consumer that affect only that consumer's connection to the Internet.