Column: Net neutrality’s regulatory tightrope

In the US, President Barack Obama’s recent statement, urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue regulations embracing principles of “net neutrality” (NN)—seen by some as the gold standard for supervising internet traffic—created quite a stir and inevitably had cross-border effects, including in India. A series of articles appeared in the local media, both supporting and opposing NN, depending on whether the authors were pro-innovation or pro-investment. The argument is that NN encourages innovation but discourages operators to make infrastructure investments since they are unable to recover costs. Naturally, both sides present more nuanced arguments in their favour, although the main premise remains a trade-off between innovation and investment.
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