There are no problems with net neutrality in Europe and...

operators, ISPs, national authorities, consumer and civil-society organizations and individuals showed “near consensus” on the importance of keeping the Internet open but no widespread call for further EU legislation, the EC said Tuesday. Most believe that traffic management supports efficient operation of the Internet and doesn’t hurt consumers, it said. BEREC found cases in which equal treatment of data wasn’t ensured, and that could raise concerns for competition and society, the EC said. Although net neutrality hasn’t been discussed intensively in many countries, there have been instances of peer-to-peer file-share throttling and of blocking VoIP services or additional charges for them, it said. But these issues were resolved voluntarily and many respondents said future net neutrality problems are hard to predict, it said. Some content providers worried that today’s relatively open Internet could suffer if new market structures, such as charging parties other than the end-user, emerge, it said. But operators said those concerns aren’t justified, because competition and transparent measures to ensure consumer choice can prevent pitfalls, it said. BEREC foresaw three potential issues, the EC said: Discrimination with anti-competitive effects; longer-term consequences for the Internet economy affecting freedom of expression and innovation; and consumer confusion or harm from lack of transparency. In general, however, most believe that the EU telecom regulatory framework can deal with the issues, it said. Most commenters agreed that traffic management is essential for Internet operations but that it shouldn’t give preferential treatment to one service over another or allow deep packet inspection, which raises privacy and data protection issues. Many also said consumers should be given information about traffic management but transparency alone isn’t enough to relieve current and future net neutrality concerns. Respondents also agreed that traffic management principles should apply to fixed and mobile networks. They split on whether the same quality of service conditions should apply to all managed services but generally agreed that additional rules on such services aren’t needed. Many, including operators and some content providers, said regulation to set minimum QoS standards for Internet access would stifle innovation. Respondents had various ideas about how to determine minimum QoS standards, some warning that effective monitoring of QoS would be a tough task. The EC and European Parliament will discuss an upcoming EC report on net neutrality at a summit Thursday.