When to Regulate? The Digital Divide and Net Neutrality

This is the first out of three courses exploring Internet Policy: Principles and Problems. This course builds an interdisciplinary policy framework to critique and develop regulatory and policy approaches to real-world problems on the Internet. Learners then use the framework to develop policy solutions to improve the Digital Divide and to evaluate net neutrality regulations. This course can be taken for academic credit as part of CU Boulder’s MS in Data Science or MS in Computer Science degrees offered on the Coursera platform. These fully accredited graduate degrees offer targeted courses, short 8-week sessions, and pay-as-you-go tuition. Admission is based on performance in three preliminary courses, not academic history. CU degrees on Coursera are ideal for recent graduates or working professionals. Learn more: MS in Data Science: https://www.coursera.org/degrees/master-of-science-data-science-boulder MS in Computer Science: https://coursera.org/degrees/ms-computer-science-boulder

• When Should We Regulate the Internet?
• In this module, you will learn how the early Internet was viewed not only as a disruptive force to communications services but to government regulation of information services as well, raising the important question of what justifications should be provided in support of policies designed to regulate Internet services. In short, we consider the important question of whether and in what fashion we should regulate the Internet. While this may seem strange to you given the large amount of government regulation of Internet services in today’s world, as you will see, the roots of the Internet began with a declaration in opposition to any government regulation of the Internet networks and services!
• Emergence of Broadband as a New Universal Service
• In this module, you will learn how policy makers within the United States, since 2010, have been advancing broadband Internet access service to become a universal service to all residential locations. We will discover how National Broadband Plans are pivotal policy planning tools to identify and address the main policy issues driving this universal service designation. This is perhaps the most significant communications policy development that has occurred in the last 100 years since telephone service was declared a universal service in the early 1900s! You will learn how far the transition to universal broadband service has progressed, and what have been the key drivers of progress, along with the remaining barriers facing this transition set in motion by the recognition of the Internet as critical infrastructure for the nation.
• Addressing the Digital Divide Based Upon the Digital Equity Act
• So far in this course we have studied the problems identified as “Digital Divide issues” that have become increasingly apparent since before the National Broadband Plan was completed in 2010. We now turn to gain further understanding of the digital divide, as reflected in the definition of the term by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as “the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTs) and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities.” As you will learn in this learning module, the gaps included in this definition, known as digital equity gaps, arise due to wide disparities in the broadband usage and adoption patterns of different groups of people in the United States. To study how public policy can address digital equity gaps, we will focus on the broadband equity initiatives and activities included in the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021. Specifically, we will learn how the Digital Equity Act of 2021, one of the major policy components included in the IIJA, plans to address Digital Equity gaps. We will then use the Colorado's Broadband Roadmap and Digital Access Plan as a case study to assess the approaches taken in Colorado to address both Digital Divide deployment issues as well as digital equity gaps. To assess the approaches taken in this case study, we will apply portions of the interdisciplinary policy framework to help us critique these plans and programs now underway in the state of Colorado.
• Network Neutrality to Insure Access to Broadband
• Our earlier modules have focused upon access to broadband infrastructure based upon the actual availability of broadband services throughout the geographic areas or communities where consumers reside and the affordability of broadband services to consumers to deliver the benefits of broadband necessary in modern society. In this module we turn to examine another type of access to broadband services which is the ability of consumers to access the online resources provided by broadband services. The quality and performance of network access for Internet users are addressed in the often-controversial net neutrality regulations intended to manage fair and efficient access to online Internet resources such as Internet applications and websites. In this module, you will learn about the evolution of network neutrality regulations established by the Federal Communications Commission. As you will see, these regulations are among the most controversial that have been applied to Internet services due to philosophical differences in how the Internet should be regulated by the government.