For a few years now, there has been a big debate rumbling about who should be footing the bill for the ever-increasing levels of content users have access to on a daily basis. With the advent of streaming TV and movies, along with downloadable games, the amount of data being transferred over the internet infrastructure has increased exponentially over the last few years. ISPs want to be able to charge the sources of this ‘fatter’ content (such as TV and movie companies) for the additional costs involved in providing it to end-users, with a charge being passed on to the users themselves if the content provider doesn’t wish to foot the bill.

This would essentially dictate that the internet becomes a multi-tiered system – those who pay get better service, whilst those who don’t will experience slower speeds and decreased availability. The ISPs don’t particularly care who pays or who gets this degraded experience, as long as they get the money at the end of the day to support their networks. For instance, a TV studio could be asked to pay the ISP in order to allow a full-speed experience when watching their streamed TV shows, and if the TV studio and ISP failed to reach a deal, this price hike would be passed on to the consumer. If they didn’t pay, well, they would have to make do with vastly reduced availability, if any at all.

However, all of this has come up against fierce opposition from those who wish to see the internet carry on as it has done up until now – that is, equal to all. Big tech companies are facing off against the big telecommunications companies, with the likes of Google and eBay fighting for net neutrality.

But now it seems that the new chief of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has backed the big tech companies, saying that the net should be a neutral venue for all who wish to use it, and that the very idea of having differing levels of service for different prices is not what the internet should be. He has gone as far as to formulate additional rules which would expressly forbid this kind of behind-the-scenes manipulation.

This is the first stance the FCC has taken on this issue after the new chief came in, appointed by US President Barack Obama – who has backed net neutrality himself.