Net neutrality

Net neutrality is the principle that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should treat all customers, data, devices and services equally, without favouring one over another. An ISP is the company that provides your connection, so it is the party that has to stay neutral.

The same content for every customer

Under net neutrality, all users have access to the same content. A household on the cheapest package and a household paying for the fastest deal both reach the same websites — the ISP cannot quietly hand one of them a stripped-back version of the web. A phone browsing on mobile data reaches the same sites as a laptop on home broadband, because a mobile network is simply another ISP. Nor can an ISP decide that some kinds of gadget deserve the full internet while others get a cut-down one: the content behind the connection stays the same whatever screen it ends up on.

No artificial limits on one service

Net neutrality also means an ISP does not artificially limit or slow down the speed of one service compared with another. It does not mean every connection runs at exactly the same speed: a newer phone may download faster than an older tablet simply because its hardware is better. What matters is that the ISP is not the one choosing to hold a particular service back.

Picture an ISP as a postal worker who drops one shop's letters through the door straight away but leaves a rival shop's letters in the van for a week. The letters weigh the same and the customers have not changed, so the delay is entirely the delivery firm's choice. Net neutrality says an ISP must not behave like that postal worker: it should carry every service's data as quickly as the connection allows, and let customers decide which services succeed.