Telecoms Step Up Fight Over Net Neutrality

by Sam Schechner; Ryan Knutson, The Wall Street Journal

The net neutrality battle is intensifying in both the United States and Europe, as telecommunications companies and technology firms argue over the handling of Internet traffic and how to divide the costs and profits of data-intensive Web services.

ENTO, a group of Europe’s biggest telecommunications companies, is fighting provisions in a proposed European law that would enforce net neutrality.

“We fear that, if the most restrictive views on open Internet prevail, there will be a significant reduction of users’ choice,” says ENTO head Luigi Gambardella.

In the United States, telecommunications companies are trying to push the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to allow them to charge some websites to deliver content at higher quality. However, European telecommunications companies are battling their American counterparts over how to divide the costs and profits from the large amounts of data being sent all over the world.

A main issue in the net neutrality debate is where to draw the line between the broader Internet and private services that telecommunications operators provide. The providers think they should be free to set aside part of their infrastructure to sell advanced services, while technology companies think that type of system could lead to a two-tiered Internet, with only some types of content available at top speeds.

“Skype and other online apps have been experiencing arbitrary restrictions of use for some time now,” said Jean-Jacques Sahel, policy director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Microsoft Corp. which owns the video-chat app. “To ensure that these bad practices stop and the Internet does not become a dirt road, we need clear rules.”

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In the U.S., AT&T Inc.  this year became the first telecom to offer a sponsored data service that would allow content companies to pay for the data consumed by users accessing their websites or mobile apps, although no major content producers have signed up…

Many people in the business expect that, despite the battles, a two-speed Internet is likely to become a reality—as will capacity concerns.  Article

DCL: See also, Benton, Sam Schechner video. This is a battle that the FCC should control, but doesn’t have the power to do so at the moment. It will effect all of your lives, and very quickly too, since we all now depend upon the Internet and mobile networks.  Get your Congress and Senate people to take action to strengthen the FCC. If you don’t, you may very well regret it.