Content Delivery Networks Want to Be Excluded From Net Neutrality Rules

WASHINGTON, February 23, 2024 – One of the leading Content Delivery Network met on Tuesday with the office of Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in an effort to convince the agency that CDNs should remain outside net neutrality rules.

Lauren Van Wazer, Vice President of Global Public Policy for Akamai, one of the leading  CDNs, told Rosenworcel’s office that the state of the internet has not changed sufficient to warrant including CDNs in the agency’s net neutrality rules.

In the FCC's proposed regulations, the agency would regulate convention broadband internet access service providers as a Title II telecommunications service.

Content Delivery Networks such as Akamai, Cloudflare and Amazon CloudFront, constitute interconnected servers that boost loading speed for data-intensive applications. CDNs store website content on servers, creating a shorter pathway for data to travel to a user’s computer.  

CDNs were not covered in the 2015 net neutrality order put in place by former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler under President Obama. Under President Trump’s FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, those rules were reversed.

In the Tuesday meeting, Akamai argued that FCC had already settled this issue in 2015, and that backtracking on their previous actions would, “undermine, rather than improve, the security and resiliency of the internet.”

Some propose including CDNs in net neutrality rules, because these networks are capable of throttling and blocking traffic, and that the 2015 focused too narrowly on Internet Service Providers and should have addressed CDNs. 

In its net neutrality proposed rules adopted in October on a 3-2 party line vote, the FCC reflected on the agency's previous decision to exclude CDNs from open internet regulations. It solicited public comment on whether it should change course. CDNs’ capabilities might qualify them as broadband internet access service, the agency mused. 

Akamai officials insist that CDNs are not broadband internet service providers, are not telecommunication providers, and do not enact paid prioritization, hence they should not be subject to open internet rules. 

The company dismissed the notion that regulating CDNs would help address “national security and public safety concerns,” and argued that CDNs are not involved with the flow of internet traffic and do not possess a unique relationship with internet service providers. 

By shortening the distance needed to carry content to users, CDNs help identify and minimize potential threats closer to the user, the company states. Moreover, storing more content closer to users help reduce congestions and service interruptions, the company said, according to a notice filed with the commission after the meeting.