Network Neutrality Debate: an End User’s Perspective

Abstract

Network neutrality has recently become a major issue in the telecommunications industry as the demand for services which need more bandwidth have continued to grow. It is frequently argued that network neutrality is necessary to guarantee fair competition, continuous innovation among contents and application providers and to protect access by end users to network. However, network operators argue that it may reduce the incentive to upgrade their networks, and thereby a high quality of services (QoS) may not be guaranteed. Although network neutrality is a controversial issue that can affect the interests of a wide range of stakeholders, previous studies have only focused on the debate between network operators and contents and application providers, without taking into consideration of end users who are one of the most important stakeholders. This paper attempts to review the network neutrality debate from the perspective of end users by examining which attributes they prefer in broadband Internet services. The results imply that Internet access speed is the most important factor and that a user-oriented approach may reduce conflicts between network operators and contents and application providers.