Net neutrality, too controversial for Sofia
Leadership in the net neutrality file will not come from Europe... or will it?
Leadership in the net neutrality file will not come from Europe... or will it?
At the end of the week the EU Telecom Council will address net neutrality and the Connected Continent Regulation. Member states are disagreeing over net neutrality and the opponents of stricter protection might point now to the recent FCC vote favouring specialised services alongside standard internet access.
The European Union is today seen as a ‘digital laggard’ which relies on divergent national regulation and whose digital policies lack coherence. This review looks back at internet policy making and makes a few prescriptions.
“Digital” is written big in the coalition agreement , which was signed to give way to the new German government. Will this propell Germany onto the front seat in international internet politics.
Can smaller countries in Europe only copy and past from the legislation of the EU or other big players, or are they in a position to provide fresh ideas for innovation in policy development? This new series by the Internet Policy Review checks on it.
Details about a future European net neutrality rule are still lacking, but competing models from EU member states are already on the table. Should it be a law, like in the Netherlands and Slovenia, or are co-regulatory guidelines like in Norway doing the job. The Internet Policy Review's Monika Ermert was at EuroDIG this week and found some leads.
In an April press release, Deutsche Telekom announced it would throttle IP traffic flows of its DSL customers once they cross certain data limits and to privilege their own and "partner" content at the same time. "Managed services will be delivered at a higher and guaranteed quality at an extra cost," a spokesman explained. This article looks at
Internet Policy Review is an open access and peer-reviewed journal on internet regulation.
Follow us @POLICYR
emailSubscribe NEWSLETTER