Public Consultations on Net Neutrality 2010

Abstract

The evolution of the Internet has come to a point where almost at the same time, governments all around the world feel the need for legislation to regulate the use of the Internet. In preparing the legislation, various governments and their regulation bodies called for consultation on the subject of network neutrality. We describe in this paper the consultations made by the America, European and French governments, as well as the background related to the net neutrality question in each case. Rather than describing the answers to each consultation, which are available and which have already been analyzed, we focus on comparing the consultations and the statistical figures related to participation in them. We have also evaluated the conclusions reached by these governments and how they faced the issues lying underneath the debate.

Keywords: Net neutrality, Internet Governance, Public Consultation, Network Management, IT Law

JEL Classification: L96, K23, L50, O38, L86