This piece was originally published in ProMarket.
Innovation has been the key argument for implementing net neutrality, or “open internet” rules. While there is no official, statutory definition, Tim Wu suggested it as the broadband network being a “neutral platform” for innovation. Open Internet rules are a set of price and traffic controls for the treatment of internet traffic.
Save the Internet, an international advocacy organization pushing for net neutrality, claimed: “Without Net Neutrality, the next Google would never get off the ground.” Indeed, net neutral internet regulations have been in place for more than a decade in dozens of countries, but not in others. This inconsistency makes for a global natural experiment, which we studied in a five-year research project at Aalborg University’s Center for Communication, Media and Information Technologies by measuring mobile apps on mobile networks across 53 countries.
Countries with hard net neutrality regulation should have more internet innovation, right?
