French ISP Free takes on Google

Frédéric Dubois, Internet Policy Review, Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, Germany, editor@policyreview.info

PUBLISHED ON: 14 Jan 2013

2013 had barely started when Free released new software on the modems of its customers. The release included a default setting that blocks online advertisements. The action is reputed to be aimed at Google in particular.

The dispute between internet giant Google and France’s second largest internet service provider (ISP) Free is about to escalate. The story of ISPs wrangling with large internet content provider firms such as Google on who should cover increased internet infrastructure and interconnection costs is not a new one. What is new is that an ISP drops the gloves and challenges Google’s business practices head-on.

Up until now, the standard procedure has been that ISPs finance the cost of their networks by charging their subscribers. But with the advent of high definition video and high volume data traffic, ISPs have increasingly argued that providers of content should chip in.

Free vs. Google

Already in early 2012 the two firms had publicly collided over YouTube, the online video service that belongs to the American multinational. Free argued that YouTube was using up too much bandwidth. Free CEO Xavier Niel even encouraged his company’s customers to use competitor Dailymotion.

Then, in November 2012, many Free customers started experiencing extremely long loading times late at night. All the websites that were slow were those making use of Google AdSense, the world’s biggest advertisement service. Users, net neutrality activists but also the French government were quick to denounce what in their view was a differentiated treatment in internet traffic. In other words, Free was accused of violating the net neutrality principle.

In November, France’s telecommunications regulator Arcep opened an administrative enquiry and asked Google and Free to provide technical and financial data backing up their respective views on the peering conflict.

With the latest escalation, France’s Minister of Economy, Fleur Pellerin, has joined Arcep in trying to avoid an open war. European ISPs, advertisement firms and content providers are in the front row, waiting for the results of the mediation to come through.

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