Subsidizing Creativity Through Network Design: Zero-Pricing and Net Neutrality

The "Net Neutrality" debate, as it has emerged over the last five years, is a social, political and economic debate over the public information network known as the Internet and the duties of its private carriers, which include telephone and cable companies and other Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In the early 2000s, questions surrounding the rights of Internet carriers to block certain network attachments and control access to emergent applications or content providers led to a call to protect "Network Neutrality". The debate raises familiar questions for students of travel or communications infrastructure: for hundreds of years, courts and governments have struggled over the duties that carriers like ferries, railroads, or telephone companies owe to the public by virtue of their necessity.