No Net Neutrality Rules Needed Yet, EU Regulators Say
"We are not looking for additional regulation” on net neutrality, said the head of the EU telecom regulatory group. Revised telecom rules, many of which don’t take effect until June, must be given time to work before further legislation is introduced, John Doherty, chairman of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, said Thursday. But if there are significant, persistent problems, the EC won’t be afraid to act, said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes. They spoke at a joint European Commission-European Parliament summit in Brussels on net neutrality and an open Internet. The discussion will feed into an EC report.
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Any content or application that’s legal and doesn’t cause undue congestion or otherwise harm other users or network integrity “should be fully accessible,” Kroes said. In the spirit of net neutrality, all such content and applications should be treated equally, and that should not require “must-carry” obligations on each ISP, she said.
Any future regulatory action will focus on effective competition, transparency to allow consumer choice, and ease of switching providers, Kroes said. If that fails, she said, she'll consider targeted conditions on unjustified traffic differentiation applicable to all ISPs regardless of market power. Another subject of possible regulation is ensuring a high quality of service, Doherty said.
National authorities have clear instructions to promote an open and neutral Internet, said International Director Alex Blowers of the U.K. Office of Communications. They have current and forthcoming powers to identify whether traffic management is being used anti-competitively, he said. There has been a “fairly negligible” level of harm in the U.K. and elsewhere, he said.
There must be a distinction among formal complaints, informal complaints and “rhetorical exchanges,” Blowers said. Net neutrality problems can’t be presumed from such exchanges; they require solid evidence, he said. Europe should avoid a return to splitting the difference between industry lobbyists to mediate competition disputes, he said.
The net neutrality debate is still in its infancy in Europe, Doherty said. Problems have been resolved without regulatory intervention, but authorities must remain vigilant, he said.
Europe’s healthy, competitive environment allows many problems to be dealt with at their roots, avoiding the emergence of “monopolistic gatekeepers” that could spell serious danger for net neutrality, Kroes said. That’s why the debate is different in Europe than in the U.S., she said. But competition alone isn’t enough to avoid problems, Kroes said. Consumers must be effectively informed of traffic management practices and be able to move easily to other operators if they're dissatisfied, she said.
Open Access a Key Issue
Almost everyone agrees that traffic management is needed to maximize “best effort services” and develop special managed services such as e-health, Kroes said. But it must be used properly, not to exploit network constraints, she said.
Some management is needed, but instead of defending its use based on network congestions, ISPs should increase their capacity, said Thomas Nortvedt of the Norwegian Department of Consumer Advocacy. Congestion degrades services for all network users, so traffic management must be allowed, said Rafael Diez Vega, Telefonica corporate regulation director. Traffic management isn’t based on arbitrary criteria, he said.
Most providers support the principle of open access -- allowing end-users to access most services and applications of their choice, Kroes said. But there is some blocking and throttling of sites and applications, and some companies set differentiated data charges for particular applications, she said.
This is a problem if consumers aren’t clearly informed and can’t easily switch providers, Kroes said. The Internet is already fragmenting in Europe because of restrictions by mobile operators on customer use of Skype VoIP, newsgroups, mobile streaming and other services, said Jean-Jacques Sahel, Skype’s government and regulatory affairs director. He urged EU bodies to issue guidance on what network management is reasonable and proper.
Regulators will focus on differentiated traffic management, said Doherty. There’s no clear distinction between best-efforts and managed services, said European Parliament member Pilar del Castillo Vera, of Spain and the European People’s Party. The subject must be debated, and the EC should issue recommendations, said Catherine Trautmann, of France and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Party.
Open access is a more important debate than net neutrality, said Vincent Van Quickenborne, minister for telecommunications for Belgium, which currently holds the EU Presidency. There’s a need to define best-efforts and find the right balance between that and managed services, he said.
But one EU lawmaker warned that the “Internet is not only a market to be regulated.” Saying that users can vote with their feet if they're unhappy with an ISP doesn’t go far enough, said Jan Philipp Albrecht, of Germany and the Greens/European Free Alliance Group. Protecting the rights of majority and minority users to Internet access, services and information, and so to free speech and other fundamental rights, is all part of an open Internet, he said.