Access to Broadband Networks: Net Neutrality (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised April 10, 2019 |
| Report Number |
IF10955 |
| Report Type |
In Focus |
| Authors |
Angele A. Gilroy |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
The move to place restrictions on the owners of the
networks that comprise and provide access to the internet,
to ensure equal access and nondiscriminatory treatment, is
referred to as “net neutrality.” While there is no single
accepted definition of net neutrality most agree that any
such definition should include the general principles that
owners of the networks that comprise and provide access to
the internet should not control how consumers lawfully use
that network; and should not be able to discriminate against
content provider access to that network.
Determining the appropriate framework to ensure an open
internet is central to the debate over broadband access, and
is an issue that the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) has been grappling with for decades. Some
policymakers contend that more proscriptive regulations,
such as those contained in the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet
Order (2015 Order), are necessary to protect the
marketplace from potential abuses which could threaten the
net neutrality concept. Others contend that existing laws
and the current, less restrictive approach, contained in the
FCC’s 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order (2017
Order), provide a more suitable framework. There is also a
growing consensus that Congress should amend the 1934
Communications Act, as amended, (Communications Act)
to address the debate.
