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ALONGSIDE THE ANNOUNCEMENT that roaming charges will be scrapped entirely by June 2017, the European Parliament also announced a new proposal that all view all internet traffic as equal.
The terms of the proposal was decided after a late-night meeting in Brussels following months of negotiation.
Under the proposal, all users in the EU will be free to access sites without fear of being blocked or slowed down by external forces through the ‘open internet’.
Paid prioritisation will not be allowed under this open internet and blocking and throttling will only be allowed in certain circumstances like preventing traffic congestion or countering cyber-attacks.
The part that is being criticised is the inclusion of ‘specialised services’ and how it worded. The European Commission says it caters for services that would require faster connections like HD video conferencing, internet TV and telesurgery, provided they do not hinder other users.
The new EU net neutrality rules guarantee the open internet and enable the provision of specialised or innovative services on condition that they do not harm the open internet access.
It does address the concern of fair competition by saying both startups and large companies can expect the same treatment on the open internet, but the concern is that this doesn’t apply to specialised services.
It’s argued that the latter could allow anyone to pay for faster services alongside the ‘open internet’, only accessible to those who can afford it.
The other is the inclusion of zero rating or sponsored connectivity which sees operators not counting data usage for certain services, as a way of reducing the user’s monthly data usage.
What this can result in is operators pushing users away from competitors’ content by not counting them as free to use. Companies could also pay for inclusion on this to ensure they get more traffic, making it harder for up and coming companies to get a foothold.
Some organisations aren’t happy about the measures. The director general of the European Consumer Organisation Monique Goyens said the safeguards against specialised services “are not strong enough.”
A robust Net Neutrality law involves protections against undue management of traffic and discriminatory commercial practices. What Europe is essentially saying here is that all internet data is born equal, but some is more equal than others. We applaud the new onus on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to treat traffic equally, but safeguards against the impact of ‘specialised services’ are not strong enough.
The EDRi (European Digital Rights) have called it an “abdication of responsibility,” and highlighted some key points of confusion, mainly the distinction between specialised services and the public internet and how specialised services are defined.
What is the point of agreeing to adopt legislation that makes the legal situation less clear than it was before? Now we have text which could mean almost anything – we did not need more legal uncertainty.”
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can anyone explain this in layman terms (non techie) … Thank you
The first is that certain specialised services WILL be allowed to have paid prioritisation. So presumably the fear is that the intended use will be abused because it is worded overly broadly.
The second is basically what you get now when you get Spotify with Vodafone (etc.) where they don’t count your data used on Spotify against your allowance.
The latter is reasonable(ish) for mobile networks but for not for broadband providers. Also, its not so bad when Vodafone partner with an outside company, but if they were supplying their own music service, allowing them to not count that against your allowance is a major conflict of interest.
The second one is (seemingly) so broadly worded that UPC could (for example — I don’t actually have anything against them in particular) decide all packages only come with 10GB of data. But then advertise that YouTube, Spotify, RTE etc., and most crucially their OWN streaming service don’t count against the allowance (i.e. every major streaming service but: Netflix)
Using Netflix suddenly becomes extremely unappealing to UPC users. You might think people will vote with their feet but fact is: 1. In UPC’s case very few other operators can compare in speed. 2. Most other operator’s (including eircom) have the same temptation.
Nicely put. It definitely sets a bad precedence.
Ah relax Jimmy it doesn’t really mater that much.
I am just curious …. I would like to get a general understanding of the current and the proposed ..
But most “home” broadband packages (as opposed to mobile ) are unlimited in data use nowadays anyway – so speculating they would introduce a really low limit and then charge for YouTube etc separately is not really gonna make commercial sense or their packages appealing or competitive so can’t really see that happening hike broadband – mobile is different and the companies are really only trying to work out the models / Data levels that are competitive appealing and of course profitable – the bigger story pushed aside in Europe was that the roaming charges were kicked further down the road thanks to operators lobbying – that should have been fast tracked to stop the rip off for “roaming”
I wouldn’t worry too much. If governments and tech corps. destroy the internet through the mechanisms which could be allowed without strict neutrality, somebody will just go build a new internet. Domestic, national and even supra-national governments have quite literally no power to contain the internet. It’s global and it’s virtual. It’s 1′s and 0′s and it can’t be stopped from being whatever people want it to be.
have your say