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The Evolution Of Internet Service Providers From Partners To Adversaries: Tracking Shifts In Interconnection Goals And Strategies In The Internet’S Fifth Generation, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
At the Internet’s inception, carriers providing the bit switching and transmission function largely embraced expanding connections and users as a primary service goal. These ventures refrained from metering traffic and charging for carriage based on the assumption that traffic volumes roughly matched, or that traffic measurement was not worth the bother in light of external funding from government grants. Most Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) bartered network access through a process known as peering in lieu of metering traffic and billing for network use. As governments removed subsidies and commercial carriers invested substantial funds to build larger and faster networks, identifying …
Déjà Vu All Over Again: Questions And A Few Suggestions On How The Fcc Can Lawfully Regulate Internet Access, Rob Frieden
Déjà Vu All Over Again: Questions And A Few Suggestions On How The Fcc Can Lawfully Regulate Internet Access, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
This paper will examine the FCC’s March, 2015 Open Internet Order with an eye to assessing whether and how the Commission can successfully defend its decision in an appellate court. On two prior occasions, the FCC failed to convince a reviewing court that proposed regulatory safeguards do not unlawfully impose common carrier duties on private carriers. The Commission now has opted to reclassify broadband Internet access as common carriage, a decision sure to trigger a third court appeal. The FCC Open Internet Order offers several, possibly contradictory, justifications for its decision to apply Title II of the Communications Act, subject …
Network Neutrality And Consumer Demand For “Better Than Best Efforts” Traffic Management, Rob Frieden
Network Neutrality And Consumer Demand For “Better Than Best Efforts” Traffic Management, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
This paper assesses whether and how ISPs can offer quality of service enhancements, at premium prices for full motion video, while still complying with the new rules and regulations established by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in March, 2015. The paper explains that having made the controversial decision to reclassify all forms of Internet access as a telecommunications service, the FCC increases regulatory uncertainty. In particular, the FCC has failed to identify instances where “retail ISPs,” serving residential broadband subscribers, can offer quality of service enhancements that serve real consumer wants without harming competition and the ability of most content …
The Costs And Benefits Of Regulatory Intervention In Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes: Lessons From Broadcaster-Cable Retransmission Consent Negotiations, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
This paper considers what limited roles the FCC may lawfully assume to ensure timely and fair interconnection and compensation agreements in the Internet ecosystem. The paper examines the FCC’s limited role in broadcaster-cable television retransmission consent negotiations with an eye toward assessing the applicability of this model. The FCC explicitly states that it lacks jurisdiction to prescribe terms, or to mandate binding arbitration. However, it recently interpreted its statutory authority to ensure “good faith” negotiations as allowing it to constrain broadcaster negotiating leverage by prohibiting multiple operators, having the largest market share, from joining in collective negotiations with cable operators. …
Internet Protocol Television And The Challenge Of “Mission Critical” Bits., Rob Frieden
Internet Protocol Television And The Challenge Of “Mission Critical” Bits., Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
The Internet increasingly provides an alternative distribution medium for video and other types of high value, bandwidth intensive content. Many consumers have become “technology agnostic” about what kind of wireline or wireless medium provides service. However, they expect carriers to offer access anytime, anywhere, via any device and in any format. These early adopters of new technologies and alternatives to “legacy” media have no patience with the concept of “appointment television” that limits access to a specific time, on a single channel and in only one presentation format. This paper assesses whether and how Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) can offer …
Net Bias And The Treatment Of “Mission-Critical” Bits, Rob Frieden
Net Bias And The Treatment Of “Mission-Critical” Bits, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
The Internet increasingly provides an alternative distribution medium for video and other types of high value, bandwidth intensive content. Many consumers have become “technology agnostic” about what kind of wireline or wireless medium provides service. However, they expect carriers to offer access anytime, anywhere, via any device and in any distribution format. These early adopters of new technologies and alternatives to “legacy” media have no patience with the concept of “appointment television” that limits access to a specific time, on a particular channel and in a single presentation format. This paper assesses whether and how Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) can …
Rationales For And Against Regulatory Involvement In Resolving Internet Interconnection Disputes, Rob Frieden
Rationales For And Against Regulatory Involvement In Resolving Internet Interconnection Disputes, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) provide end users with access to and from the Internet cloud. In addition to providing the first and last mile carriage of traffic, ISPs secure upstream access to sources of content telecommunications carriers typically a paid (transit), or barter (peering) basis. Because a single ISP operates in two separate segments of traffic routing, the terms and conditions of network interconnection and the degree of marketplace competition can vary greatly. In this double-sided market, ISPs typically have many transit and peering opportunities upstream to content providers, but downstream end users may have a limited choice of ISP …
Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden
Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) provide end users with access to and from the Internet cloud. In addition to providing the first and last mile carriage of traffic, ISPs secure upstream access to sources of content via other ISPs typically on a paid (transit), or barter (peering) basis. Because a single ISP operates in two separate segments of traffic routing, both the terms and conditions of network interconnection and the degree of marketplace competition can vary greatly. In this double-sided market, ISPs typically have many transit and peering opportunities upstream to content providers, but downstream end users may have a limited …
Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden
Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) provide end users with access to and from the Internet cloud. In addition to providing the first and last mile carriage of traffic, ISPs secure upstream access to sources of content via other ISPs typically on a paid (transit), or barter (peering) basis. Because a single ISP operates in two separate segments of traffic routing, both the terms and conditions of network interconnection and the degree of marketplace competition can vary greatly. In this double-sided market, ISPs typically have many transit and peering opportunities upstream to content providers, but downstream end users may have a limited …
From Bad To Worst: Assessing The Long Term Consequences Of Four Controversial Fcc Decisions, Rob Frieden
From Bad To Worst: Assessing The Long Term Consequences Of Four Controversial Fcc Decisions, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
Far too many major decisions of the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) rely on flawed assumptions about the current and future telecommunications marketplace. If the FCC incorrectly overstates the current state of competition, it risks exacerbating its mistake going forward if actual competition proves unsustainable, or lackluster. In many key decisions the FCC cited robust competition in current and future markets as the basis for decisions that relax restrictions on incumbents, abandon strategies for promoting competition, or apply statutory definitions of services that trigger limited government oversight. The Commission ignores the secondary and tertiary consequences of decisions that deprive it of …
Network Neutrality Over The Top: Why The Fcc Should Not Try To Establish Rules Affecting Internet Content And Applications Providers, Rob M. Frieden
Network Neutrality Over The Top: Why The Fcc Should Not Try To Establish Rules Affecting Internet Content And Applications Providers, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) that would codify rules aiming to preserve a free and open Internet for consumers. The NPRM appropriately concentrates on preventing broadband Internet access providers (“IAPs”) from acting as gatekeepers between end-users and online content and application providers. However, the NPRM does invite comments on a proposal of AT&T that openness principles be applied to Internet content and application providers. This article strongly opposes AT&T’s imitative as both unlawful and unwise. The FCC’s appropriate concern about end user access to the Internet via IAPs does not justify an …
Invoking And Avoiding The First Amendment: How Internet Service Providers Leverage Their Status As Both Content Creators And Neutral Conduits, Rob M. Frieden
Invoking And Avoiding The First Amendment: How Internet Service Providers Leverage Their Status As Both Content Creators And Neutral Conduits, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Much of the policy debate and scholarly literature on network neutrality has addressed whether the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has statutory authority to require Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) to operate in a nondiscriminatory manner. Such analysis largely focuses on questions about jurisdiction, the scope of lawful regulation, and the balance of power between stakeholders, generally adverse to government oversight, and government agencies, apparently willing to overcome the same inclination. The public policy debate primarily considers micro-level issues, without much consideration of broader concerns such as First Amendment values. While professing to support marketplace resource allocation and a regulation-free Internet, the …
Internet Packet Sniffing And Its Impact On The Balance Of Power , Robert M. Frieden
Internet Packet Sniffing And Its Impact On The Balance Of Power , Robert M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Internet Packet Sniffing and Its Impact on the Balance of Power Between Intellectual Property Creators and Consumers Rob Frieden Professor, Penn State University 102 Carnegie Building University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 (814) 863-7996; rmf5@psu.edu web site: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/r/m/rmf5/ Previously Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) had little incentive or technological capability to deviate from plain vanilla best efforts routing for content without examining the nature and type of traffic. Serving as a neutral conduit also provided the means to qualify for a safe harbor exemption from liability for carrying copyright infringing traffic provided by Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Operators of …