Network neutrality. The idea is that an ISP can’t discriminate against the traffic traveling over its network. Network neutrality is an enshrined legal right in some areas and a hotly contested regulatory fight in others. post over at TechDirt that details the UNs efforts to undermine network neutrality. The articles say the International Telecommunications Union is trying to dictate terms that will affect how traffic flows on the Internet.
UN Internet power grab
Network neutrality opposition at the United Nations arose earlier this month. The power grab started with proposed rules from the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO). The article says ETNO wants to gut network neutrality. Glyn Moody at TechDirt has read those documents. He clipped the relevant segments to argue that these proposals would effectively make network neutrality illegal. As he writes at TechDirt:
“That may sound innocuous enough, but “supporting innovation to provide a value-added service” is a coded way of saying that the telcos should be allowed to abandon net neutrality, something confirmed in one of the accompanying proposals… “
The author says the key sentence in this proposal is “Nothing shall preclude commercial agreements with differentiated quality of service delivery to develop.”
Comcast network neutrality power grab
GigaOm says that here in the US Comcast (CMCSA) has created a value-added service. Comcast decided to exempt Xfinity traffic delivered via the Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox from its 250 GBPS/month broadband cap. The U.S. version of network neutrality regulations allows Comcast to exempt that traffic. The loophole is the Xbox traffic doesn’t travel over the public Internet. The anti-net neutrality loophole exists because the FCC didn’t want to deal with the concept of value-added services on an ISP’s network when it made its network neutrality regulations.
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GigaOm calls on the UN and the ITU to open up its process. Maybe then UN member countries will think twice about the types of rules they want to enshrine. Or maybe they’ll keep listening to the people who run the networks instead of the people who use them and depend on them for their businesses.
Related articles
- European ISPs Lobby ITU Against Net Neutrality (techweekeurope.co.uk)
- ITU denies plans for global internet power-grab (go.theregister.com)
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.