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Net neutrality is a hotly debated and contested policy for broadband Internet access provision. In principle, net neutrality prescribes no discrimination by the type or size of data packet exchanged over the Internet. This principle has fostered innovation and economic growth. The non-discriminatory principle ingrained in Internet architecture has also made it the ultimate platform for convergence of technology, business and service. However, the content, businesses and services that the Internet supports, particularly rich content such as online audio-visual services, are pushing the existing Internet network infrastructure to its limits. The imbalance of growing demands for bandwidth and relatively static supply of network capacity has sparked a policy debate over network management principles for Internet access provision. The interdependent yet competing interests of network and content providers and all levels of convergence taking place on the Internet make net neutrality policymaking extremely challenging. To explain emerging net neutrality policies in the US and UK, this research examines the net neutrality policymaking process based on the understanding that the process is both structured and actor-driven. Treating policymaking as a communicative process, it identifies as the research data the formal communication and policy actors’ accounts of their informal communication during the policymaking process. An analytical framework that emphasises the interaction between structural factors and policy actors is then applied to both sets of data. This research argues in support of the position that net neutrality policies, like other polices, are communicative, structured and actor-driven. The challenges in developing net neutrality policy and policy measures result from the convergence of transmission infrastructure and content, and the interdependent yet competing values and interests underpinning the provision and consumption of these services.

This thesis offers an account of information and communication technologies (ICTs) that draws on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. It argues that Heidegger’s ontological approach presents a welcome antidote to reductionist accounts of the “revolutionary” nature of these technologies that pervade much mainstream commentary. It considers Heidegger’s inquiry into technology within the context of his wider inquiry into the ‘meaning of Being’, resulting in a range of valuable insights into the realities of our technological environment, how we engage with it, and ultimately into what consequences this engagement might have for our Being-in-the-world. Drawing on the conceptual framework developed by Heidegger it offers a critical theoretical account outside the bounds of Critical Theory approaches to ICTs that seeks dialogue with these positions. It seeks to encourage the opening up of a field that has closed itself off, for reasons that are explored in this thesis, to engaging with the valuable insights Heidegger can offer for understanding phenomena such as the ubiquity of contemporary surveillance and the exploitation of labour in the global digital economy.