On Sept. 21, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski delivered a major speech affirming his intention to implement network (net) neutrality, the policy that requires all Internet traffic to be treated equally. In that speech, he added two new principles to the four existing principles that have been the foundation of the stunning success of the Internet as an essential driver of the economy, and he directed the FCC to incorporate all six principles as official policy going forward.

Net neutrality calls for a neutral, pervasive, and ubiquitous broadband network free of restrictions on content, sites, or platforms, and restrictions on the kinds of equipment that may be attached or on the modes of communication allowed. In addition, net neutrality means one’s communication cannot be unreasonably degraded by other communication streams.

It is safe to say that no reader of this website could function effectively or his or her business could thrive without open, unfettered Internet access. Just think about email. That’s net neutrality. Yet there are forces opposed to net neutrality.

Opponents of net neutrality consist mainly of large telcos and cable providers, those who stand to profit if they could discriminate among who they served and at what price. Scott Cleland, president, Precursor LLC, a research firm, and chairman of NetCompetition.org, published a paper arguing against net neutrality.

Cleland’s study concluded that usage-based cost recovery was necessary to prevent waste and abuse of the Internet infrastructure. Basically, the large telcos and cable providers want to charge users different rates for access to the Internet for different things. Not surprisingly, these are the exact companies — AT&T, Qwest, Sprint, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and such — that underwrote Cleland’s report.

The net neutrality opponents didn’t create the Internet and have no interest in preserving an open, fair, and flexible Internet. They simply want to be free to charge whatever they want to whomever they choose and trust free market competition to prevent abuse. Sure, we’ve seen that before.

Furthermore, the telcos and cable folks insist they have no intention of messing with service levels. So, why is Comcast facing multiple lawsuits over interfering with customers’ file-sharing via the Internet, incidents referenced by Genachowski in his net neutrality address?

To the FCC’s original principles — network operators cannot prevent users from accessing the lawful Internet content, applications, services of their choice, and neither can they prohibit users from attaching nonharmful devices to the network — Genachowski added two more: nondiscrimination against particular content or applications and transparency in regard to access provider network management practices.

Unless you are a big telco, cable provider, or a supplier to those firms, you and your business will benefit far more from net neutrality and the FCC’s six principles than from letting the big ISPs run wild over the Internet. You cannot know what products or services your business might deliver in the future, but it very likely will involve the Internet to some degree. Do you then want to wrestle with Verizon or pay a surcharge to Comcast? That’s why you want net neutrality. ###