internet
Will net neutrality require me as an ISP to actively throttle my own users?
<p>If I am an ISP, I have to pay some money to my upstream network provider in order to transfer data in and out at a certain speed for a certain ammount of data. This is reflected on the user by speed and data capping.</p>

<p>However, when two of my users want to communicate, they probably barely even touch my servers and it generally does not cost me anything to let someone, say, access a website their neighbours host from the same ISP. </p>

<p>As such, if I decide not to throttle or cap the network unless I have to, where it costs me more money, would I be in violation of Title II net neutrality? In order to stay compliant, will I have to start charging my customers for a service that is basically free to me, and actually takes more effort to regulate? And what happens when, say, netflix tries to buy a connection from me? Will I be compliant as long as I don't discriminate against who I give a connection to?</p>

<p>Title II is itself completely silent on the matter. The FCC has alleged that it may classify ISPs as "common carriers", and that having done that, under Title II of the <a href="http://www.legisworks.org/congress/73/publaw-416.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Communications Act of 1934</a> allows them to restrict the operations of ISPs (because the commission can "establish and provide facilities and regulations for operating such through routes"). On April 13 2015, the FCC announced a <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-04-13/pdf/2015-07841.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">final rule</a> which modified parts of Title 47 of CFR, most centrally <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/part-8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">47 CFR Part 8</a>. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/8.7" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 8.7</a> states that</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>A person engaged in the provision of broadband Internet access
  service, insofar as such person is so engaged, shall not impair or
  degrade lawful Internet traffic on the basis of Internet content,
  application, or service, or use of a non-harmful device, subject to
  reasonable network management.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>By that rule, it would be illegal to slow down data traffic between nodes that are physically closer, so as to achieve uniform data transfer rates across the network. Differences in actual transfer rates are naturally possible given the physical structure of the network and are lawful; the regulation prohibits active impairment, when it is on the basis of content, application, or service.</p>
