Net Neutrality Stalemate
The prolonged debate over net neutrality threatens to retard development of strong U.S. broadband lines while countries like Japan and South Korea plow ahead.
“The Internet has ushered in an era of largely unfettered access to a wide variety of information. Yet, although so much of what the Internet has to offer is gratis, access to the Internet itself has never been free. This dichotomy lies at the heart of the prolonged and hairy ‘net neutrality’ debate over what Internet service providers should charge for their services and what role those companies should play in managing the flow of information over their infrastructures. Flat-rate versus tiered-pricing structures, data equality versus prioritized content—the arguments rage on in the U.S. with no end in sight, even as other high-tech countries, South Korea in particular, claim to successfully moved beyond the issue.”
