What does it actually mean?

Net Neutrality is the principle that the internet should be democratic, that all traffic used by the internet should be treated equally by their networks.

The internet, as it stands at the moment, is fairly equal. We pay to access the internet, companies pay hosting sites to make their content available and ISP’s pay for the connection.

However, some people want the right for companies to pay a higher fee to have their content delivered faster or to establish another layer of faster internet to serve paying, premium services.

This could be detrimental for sites that cannot afford the premium especially non-commercial sites who would be left with the slower ‘dregs’ of the internet. This would make the internet more a business and completely loose its democratic notion.

Against

Some of the larger companies are against net neutrality, the big telecoms networks in the US - Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and others - because they want to introduce tiered, prioritised services, most obviously because they would benefit the most. 

A Google-Verizon pact?

Google has always supported net neutrality, whereas Verizon wants to be allowed to charge for different services. But the two have agreed a proposal - more like an idea that a set in stone deal, which listed a few key principles:

1. ISPs cannot discriminate against any service in an anti-competitive way.
2.  ISPs cannot block consumers from any legal service. 
3.  ISPs have the right to manage and prioritise web traffic.
4.  ISPs must be transparent about how they are managing services.
5.  The FCC would enforce on a case-by-case basis, and have its regulatory powers over broadband services restored.
6.  A fixed part of all phone fees would be dedicated to investment in broadband networks.
7.  ISPs can introduce new and different internet services, such as 3D.
8.  Wireless services are exempt from all these proposals, apart from the condition of transparency.

However this pact is far from flawless. Wireless, mobile networks are the future. So the internet of the future will operate on a largely wireless network and under the Google-Verizon proposal, wireless services would be exempt from all these requirements, which means ISPs would be able to discriminate against competitors and would be able to block access to a service even if it was legal. 

Not everyone is happy that Google and Verizon are trying to dictate how the future internet should run. Campaigners say Google are being hypocrites, despite its ‘commitment’ to net neutrality, Google has agreed a proposal where ISPs can build and charge as they please. However most can agree that it at least moves us forward.