European Parliament gets tough on net neutrality

The European Parliament made a resolution on Thursday to protect net neutrality in all EU nation states, and has called on the European Commission to closely monitor internet service providers and their traffic management practices.

The EC has been asked to provide EU-wide guidelines to ensure that all European countries have consistent telecoms rules that are properly applied and enforced.

All EU states will need to make sure that end users' internet connections are not disrupted by network congestion, and that ISPs provide all citizens with equal access to services and content.

Neelie Kroes, European commissioner for the Digital Agenda, presented a report on net neutrality in April that quoted the results of a survey by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (Berec) confirming that internet traffic in Europe is currently given unequal treatment.

The report asserted that in some countries, including the UK, France and Greece, ISPs limit speeds on peer-to-peer file sharing or video streaming services.

In other countries, like Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, ISPs block or charge extra for mobile VoIP services.

Kroes was criticised by some rights organisations for not acting on the Berec information and choosing to adopt a wait-and-see approach on whether the EC should push Europe into greater net neutrality regulations.

Net neutrality issue is fiercely contested. Proponents argue that government regulations are needed to ensure that broadband carriers do not use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content.

Meanwhile, opponents argue that ISPs should be allowed to offer the services they choose and that state interference will lead to slower internet connections for everyone in the long run.

Now that the European Parliament has adopted a tough resolution on net neutrality, the stance has been criticised from different sides of the debate.

Lee Myall, director of telecoms company Interoute, suggested that the resolution could create problems for ISPs and internet users, arguing that ISPs are in the best position to manage internet traffic and ensure a quality experience for consumers.

"To achieve this, different traffic needs different rules, like video must have priority over data, which in essence creates a multi-speed internet," he said.

"Added to this is the need for investment to ensure the network infrastructure is fit to carry the huge increase in traffic that consumers are demanding. The risk now is that imposing net neutrality will restrict the internet investment and ultimately affect quality."

Meanwhile, Jérémie Zimmermann, a spokesman for citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net, said that European ISPs already violate net neutrality in large numbers.

"If commissioner Neelie Kroes is really committed to defending freedom of expression, as she has claimed in the past, she must act accordingly by imposing net neutrality by law, as was done in the Netherlands," he said.

"As the European Parliament commits to defending the net's openness, it should now act by further pushing for effective regulation."