The ongoing net neutrality debate has generated a lot of heated discussions on whether or not monetary interactions should be regulated between content and access providers. Among the several topics discussed, ‘differential pricing’ has recently received attention due to ‘zero-rating’ platforms proposed by some service providers. In the differential pricing scheme, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can exempt data access charges for on content from certain CPs (zero-rated) while no exemption is on content from other CPs. This allows the possibility for Content Providers (CPs) to make ‘sponsorship’ agreements to zero-rate their content and attract more user traffic. In this article, we study the effect of differential pricing on various players in the Internet. We first consider a model with a monopolistic ISP and multiple CPs where users select CPs based on the quality of service (QoS) and data access charges. We show that in a differential pricing regime 1) it is possible for a CP to obtain higher utility than a CP offering better QoS through higher subsidy at user equilibrium 2) Overall QoS (mean delay) for end users can degrade under differential pricing schemes. In the oligopolistic market with multiple ISPs, ISPs tend to set equal access prices at equilibrium and similar conclusions are derived as in the monopolistic market.

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内容的零税率及其对互联网服务质量的影响

正在进行的网络中立性辩论引发了关于是否应在内容提供商和访问提供商之间监管货币互动的热烈讨论。在讨论的几个主题中，由于某些服务提供商提出的“零利率”平台，“差异定价”最近受到关注。在差异定价方案中，Internet服务提供商（ISP）可以免除某些CP（零费率）内容的数据访问费，而其他CP的内容则不免税。这使内容提供商（CP）可以达成“赞助”协议以将其内容归零，并吸引更多用户流量。在本文中，我们研究了差别定价对互联网上各种参与者的影响。我们首先考虑具有垄断ISP和多个CP的模型，其中用户根据服务质量（QoS）和数据访问费用选择CP。我们表明，在差分定价机制中1）CP可能比通过在用户平衡时获得更高的补贴来提供更好QoS的CP获得更高的效用2）最终用户的整体QoS（平均延迟）在差分定价方案下会下降。在具有多个ISP的寡头市场中，ISP倾向于在均衡时设定相等的接入价格，并且得出与垄断市场类似的结论。我们表明，在差分定价机制中1）CP可能比通过在用户平衡时获得更高的补贴来提供更好QoS的CP获得更高的效用2）最终用户的整体QoS（平均延迟）在差分定价方案下会下降。在具有多个ISP的寡头市场中，ISP倾向于在均衡时设定相等的接入价格，并且得出与垄断市场类似的结论。我们表明，在差分定价机制中1）CP可能比通过在用户平衡时获得更高的补贴来提供更好QoS的CP获得更高的效用2）最终用户的整体QoS（平均延迟）在差分定价方案下会下降。在具有多个ISP的寡头市场中，ISP倾向于在均衡时设定相等的接入价格，并且得出与垄断市场类似的结论。