隨著寬頻的發展與普及,網際網路已成為有史以來最成功且重要的通訊媒介。但寬頻出現的同時為通訊管制政策帶來新的難題,除要避免握有傳輸設施之寬頻業者阻礙應用與內容創新,也須促進寬頻業者持續投資網路基礎建設的誘因。美國特殊的寬頻市場環境和既有管制體系使得問題更加複雜,進而引發是否應進行「網路中立」管制的爭議。網路中立要求對寬頻業者進行事前管制,不得因應用與服務提供者而為差別對待。網路中立原是個高度以美國為中心的議題,但由於網際網路無國界的性質,國際間對於美國網路中立爭議亦抱持高度的興趣,並密切注意其後續發展。是以本文之主要目的乃藉由歸納分析近年來美國學界、產業界以及管制者對於網路中立爭議的諸多探討,介紹網路中立爭議起源、意涵哲學以及立法草案,由網路技術層面、競爭層面、經濟理論層面和法律層面分析網路中立爭議,探討其管制的成本效益並與美國其他的寬頻倡議進行比較,進而對網路中立管制的必要性提出質疑,主張網路中立並非解決寬頻接取管制難題的最佳方案,發展成全球性管制議題的可能性亦不高。
As Broadband gets pervasive and popular, Internet has become the most successful and important communications media in history. At the same time, the emergence of broadband also brings a dilemma for telecommunications regulatory policy. Regulators find it difficult to prevent broadband operators leverage their monopoly power to hinder innovation and competition in adjacent application and content market and to promote broadband infrastructure investments. The special broadband market environment and telecommunications regulatory regime in U.S. make the problem much more complicated, so the debate on “Network Neutrality” arises. “Network neutrality urges ex ante regulatory regime and demands broadband operators with transmission facilities should not discriminate against any applications and service providers. Network neutrality is a highly U.S.-centric issue in the origin, but as Internet is cross-border, the debate also allures great attentions internationally. So in this article, the author tries to collect related literatures in the recent years as much as possible and introduce the origin, philosophy and legislative drafts on network neutrality proposal. Then the author analyzes network neutrality debate that bases on network technology, broadband competition, economic theory and legal perspectives, and make comparisons with other proposals that tackle the broadband regulatory dilemma. Finally, the author doubts the necessity of network neutrality regulation and claims it is not a best solution for solving broadband regulatory dilemma and not much likely becoming international regulatory issues.