Brussels, 18/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Digital Rights Association (EDRI) has accused Neelie Kroes, the commissioner reponsible for the digital agenda, of jeopardising the neutrality of the net, even though this is a principle she has always defended.
EDRI bases its accusations on a draft regulation of which it has managed to obtain a copy and which it has published in full on its website (http://www.EDRI.org ). “The Commissioner is putting a guarantee for net neutrality in a speech and killing it in the regulation… Is net neutrality dead or alive?” asks EDRI.
In a speech before the European Parliament on 4 June, Commissioner Kroes unveiled one of the most important measures of the legislative package she is to propose in October on the single digital market, in other words the openness and neutrality of the internet. She spoke out against line blockages (which occur too frequently), the lack of quality and speed of connections, laying emphasis on the urgent need to legislate in order not to endanger the emergence of innovative cross-border services (see EUROPE 10859). According to EDRI, the measures announced by the Commissioner are not quite so straightforward, in light of the draft regulation currently in circulation. Although the draft contains a provision designed to protect net neutrality (Article 20), and another containing a transparency obligation (Article 21), it also includes other provisions on offers which can be summed up in the words “whoever pays the most should be able to surf the fastest”. The text also states that “providers of content, applications and services and providers of electronic communications to the public shall be free to agree with each other on the treatment of the related data volumes or on the transmission of traffic with a defined quality of service”. The association La Quadrature du Net, which has been working for a free and open internet for years, states: telecoms operators will be free to impose limits on the volumes of data exchange (“data caps”) and enter into commercial agreements in order to be able to offer preferential traffic conditions to large online services (such as Google and Facebook), which runs absolutely counter to net neutrality, whereby all data should be treated in a non-discriminatory way by the operators, irrespective of the source of the data, their recipient or the application in question.
Neelie Kroes categorically refutes this interpretation. In a blog posted on 18 July, she explained that many innovative services depend on (ultra)fast connections with IP networks and that customers who use these services quite correctly want a reliable connection. If the EU had to ban such guarantees on quality, it would risk having to get rid of these services, argues the commissioner. She added that “some find such 'data caps' an ideological outrage; but I do not agree. After all, if I know I'm not going to use more than a few Megabytes a month on my smartphone, why should I be forced to subsidise someone using far more?” Authorising “premium” services does not threaten unrestricted freedom of access to the net at all and she provided assurances that, “if you decide not to pay that extra premium, of course, you still deserve a good product”.
In another blog on 16 July, Kroes responded to the discontent displayed by telecoms operators when she recently announced that she wanted to take to get rid of roaming tariffs. Roaming only represents a relatively small portion of revenue from telecoms, she emphasised. Moreover, these prices are absolutely not justified, particularly with barriers to the digital single market supposed to disappear, she argued. “It's time we moved away from seeing this as a win-lose debate. Telecoms providers are not in competition with their customers; rather, the two groups depend on each other”, she said. The commissioner also intends to respond to the request made by operators who want a more investment-friendly environment and promised that “I am taking measures to improve investment: like through wholesale price stability and regulatory certainty - and will shortly be coming forward with further measures”. (IL/transl.fl).