{"id":17551,"date":"2012-06-28T21:13:11","date_gmt":"2012-06-29T01:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/blog\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2022-08-23T15:56:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T19:56:04","slug":"itu-internet-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/itu-internet-takeover\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Internet Takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Network<\/a>Network neutrality. The idea is that an ISP can\u2019t 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. Stacey Higginbotham<\/a> over at GigaOm<\/a><\/em> points us<\/a> over to a<\/span> post<\/a> over at TechDirt<\/em><\/a> <\/i>that details the UNs efforts to undermine network neutrality. The articles say the International Telecommunications Union<\/a> is trying to dictate terms that will affect how traffic flows on the Internet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UN Internet power grab<\/h3>\n

\"UN<\/a>Network neutrality opposition at the United Nations arose earlier this month. The power grab started with proposed rules from the\u00a0European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO<\/a>). The article says ETNO wants to gut network neutrality<\/a>. Glyn Moody<\/a> at TechDirt<\/em> 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<\/em>:<\/p>\n

“That may sound innocuous enough, but \u201csupporting innovation to provide a value-added service\u201d is a coded way of saying that the telcos should be allowed to abandon net neutrality, something confirmed in one of the accompanying proposals\u2026 “<\/em><\/p>\n

The author says the key sentence in this proposal is \u201cNothing shall preclude commercial agreements with differentiated quality of service delivery to develop.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Comcast network neutrality power grab<\/h3>\n

\"Net<\/a>GigaOm<\/a><\/em> says that here in the US\u00a0Comcast<\/a> (CMCSA)<\/a> has created a value-added service. Comcast decided to exempt Xfinity<\/a> traffic delivered via the Microsoft<\/a> (MSFT<\/a>) Xbox<\/a> from its 250 GBPS\/month broadband cap<\/a>. The U.S. version of network neutrality regulations allows Comcast to exempt that traffic. The loophole is the Xbox traffic doesn\u2019t travel over the public Internet. The anti-net neutrality loophole exists because the FCC didn\u2019t want to deal with the concept of value-added services on an ISP\u2019s network when it made its network neutrality regulations.<\/p>\n

rb-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019ll keep listening to the people who run the networks instead of the people who use them and depend on them for their businesses.<\/em><\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h6>\n