Tim Brennan, Public Policy and Economics, in The Hill

Net neutrality has been a hotly-debated topic for some time, with arguments from industry, government and advocacy groups growing increasingly contentious. Many believe the solution is to leave the issue to antitrust enforcement rather than communications regulation, but Tim Brennan, professor of public policy and economics, has a different take. In a recent letter published by The Hill, Brennan argues, “The key issue isn’t market power, as each side contends, but instead is the value in assuring all content providers that their viewers will have reasonable access to links included in their content. The need to provide this assurance actually increases the more competitive is the market, as it becomes harder to reach agreements across multiple broadband providers.” Rather than full network neutrality, Brennan suggests “a more appropriate policy would be a minimum quality standard that provides such assurance to content providers, while allowing innovations that require higher bandwidth or more reliable connections.”