Net Neutrality: The Internet's World War. (cover story)

This article deals with the debate surrounding Net Neutrality, a U.S. government regulation to ensure that broadband service providers do not divide the Internet into a fast lane for Web sites and companies that pay a premium and a slow lane for companies that do not. Hands off the Internet, a coalition, is one of the players in the hotly contested debate on government regulation of the Internet. Critics of Net Neutrality argue that continued costs for technological advances in the Internet may become prohibitively expensive if broadband companies are net permitted to charge large companies for bandwidth. By contrast, Representative Fred Upton (R-Mich.) predicted that high-speed Internet rates would decrease as much as $40 per month, assuming that Congress defeats Net Neutrality legislation.