The repeal of net neutrality has caused a great public outcry from academic down to the end-users. Net neutrality was an FCC order that specified the principles for Internet Service Providers. The most prevalent principles were related to bandwidth throttling, preferential treatments, and...

As the body of evidence on the usefulness of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for poverty reduction and development continues to grow, mobile network operators (MNOs), development agencies, and regulators are employing various measures to increase universal access. These measures...

Abstract This paper develops a game-theoretic model based on a two-sided market framework to compare Internet service providers’ (ISPs) investment incentives, content providers’ (CPs) participation, and social welfare between neutral and non-neutral network regimes. We find that ISPs’...

Abstract We study the impact of net neutrality on the content market with endogenous product differentiation. We show that when the Internet service provider is allowed to offer different connection qualities to content providers, it has incentives to favor contents that have a broader market...

Abstract The US debate about net neutrality has been unusually contentious for a telecommunications regulatory issue, most recently culminating in a 2017 reversal of a 2015 decision to apply traditional telephone regulations, written for a monopoly era, to internet service providers. This...

Abstract In 2018, the Federal Communications Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order reversed its 2015 decision to apply common carrier regulation to broadband Internet access services under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Empirical evidence indicating negative investment...

Abstract Net neutrality or “Open Internet” rulemaking has been ongoing for more than a decade. Some 50 nations have adopted formal rules including the US (then repealed), the European Union, India, and many countries in Latin America. Among other arguments, it is asserted that net neutrality...

Abstract This paper analyzes the effects of direct interconnection agreements in the Internet backbone on content quality investment for content providers (CPs). The model assumes that when the Internet service provider (ISP) has a vertical affiliation with one CP, the ISP directly interconnects...

Abstract In 2008, former FCC Commissioner McDowell warned that Net Neutrality regulatory rulings could change every two to four years with election results His prediction was prescient. The democrat-led Wheeler Commission used technical definitions of telecommunication and information services...

Abstract In an influential paper, Choi and Kim (2010) established the invariance result that given a fixed network capacity, the average waiting times are identical regardless of net neutrality. In this paper, we argue that their result relies on the assumption that the distribution for content...