Viviane Reding backs net neutrality

Viviane Reding: The internet is central to the economic systems of the developed world

The European commissioner for information society and media says she will be "the first line of defence" when it comes to threats to net neutrality.

Speaking in Brussels yesterday, Viviane Reding said that the way to respond to the current economic crisis is to invest in the future, by which she means Europe's digital strategy.

"In less than 10 years the internet has grown from being a novel technical gadget application into becoming central to the economic systems of the developed world," she said.

"It is the medium through which information and communication technologies can be exploited, leading to innovation in business and a wide range of economic and societal benefits to citizens and consumers."

However, Reding added that, while the internet has grown in use, it has not changed and is in danger of running out of capacity.

"The internet was designed to support communication between computing systems for communities of expert users, and not to cope with an ever-growing number of networked and mobile users, applications and business models," she said.

One way in which this growth might be tackled is through traffic prioritisation techniques, but Reding said that the use of this and other such tools could prove detrimental to net neutrality, and urged European operators to find other solutions.

"There are many reasons for being very vigilant with regard to new threats to net neutrality, as they can arise in the course of market and technology developments. The blocking or discrimination of Voice over IP services by mobile operators in several EU countries is just one example for this," she added.

"I plan to be Europe's first line of defence whenever it comes to real threats to net neutrality."

Reding argued the reformed Telecoms Package currently awaiting final agreement of the European Parliament and the Council will further boost transparency for consumers and provide safeguards against anti-competitive behaviour.

However, some have argued that the package could be rushed through by the Swedish Presidency without net neutrality being debated at all.