“Victory! “. The movement “SaveTheInternet” which advocated a strict definition of net neutrality and brought together numerous associations, triumph since the European gendarme telecom (BEREC also called Berec English) made this August 30th roadmap which is favorable to him on the subject.
the European regulation of 25 November 2015 certainly raised for the first time the principle of net neutrality but left many questions unanswered. There were operators degrading the speed of some services for commercial reasons? Would VPN users penalized? BEREC has launched a major public consultation to put everything flat. And today, she makes clear pro neutrality guidelines. If the most controversial practices such as specialized services, zero-rating or traffic management are approved, they will be limited to the future. That will not please the ISP.
The operators unhappy
ETNO, the association of Europe, has already said that BEREC unfortunately had ignored most of his concerns, suggesting that the new rules would stifle innovation. “The connected cars, e-health, industrial sensors and many other applications require connectivity based on specific quality requirements (…), especially in a scenario 5G” can be read the press release of the association.
the blackmail 5G is again brandished. An argument follows the 5G manifesto published in early July by operators clearly calling for the restriction of net neutrality in order to deploy this new technology. BEREC but did not yield to the pressure.
Redefined specialized services
What frightened activists net neutrality, c is the vagueness of certain practices of operators. Although the regulations imposed they are taken transparently, proportionately and non-discriminatory.
First, the controversy raged around specialized services, also called “enhanced services”. An operator is in fact authorized to grant a guaranteed rate to services such as Internet TV (IPTV) to ensure the quality of their operation. The danger was that it might degrade the overall quality of internet access and some companies benefit without this being justified
To avoid this, BEREC provides a more precise definition of special services.: they can not be access to internet services, must be optimized for content, applications or specific services, and optimization must look objectively necessary in order to meet high demands in terms of quality. Finally, the ability of the operator network should be sufficient for it does not penalize the end users of internet services.
The zero-rating highly regulated
Other about voltage, zero-rating, to not count the data plan subscribers using certain applications or services such as cloud storage. Thereby encouraging these applications or services over others. This is also a problem of choice to the user since the operator becomes prescriber. A bit like Facebook with its Free Basics.
BEREC said that if a subscriber has spent all her data quota, all applications and services will be blocked or slowed down in the same way, including which are not counted. It will also not possible to offer zero-rating for a category of applications such as video or music streaming. And above all, the user can not be prevented from using other services than those offered. The authority finally acknowledged that the zero-rating encourages consumers to use certain services over others and therefore calls on regulators in each state to examine the situation at the local level in order not to strengthen the already dominant players positions and thereby nip in the bud the development of new independent start-ups.
limited traffic management
the last bone of contention concerned the traffic management allowing ISPs prioritize some communications on their networks. What is in preventing traffic congestions. But block or slow some greedy bandwidth services it would become possible for operators? obviously we think YouTube, Netflix or streaming video in general.
Again, BEREC clarifies things by limiting the duration of the traffic management “that should not be kept longer than necessary “and prohibiting this practice target particular content.
each member State now to seize these guidelines. This will be done in France as part of the digital law. It remains to find out how the text will be translated. The President of ARCEP Sébastien Soriano has already warned at the press conference of BEREC “Each practice will be analyzed case by case basis and depending on the context of the national market.” Yet he will have ARCEP has the means to investigate with operators.
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