News Net neutrality integrated into Dutch law

Dutch mobile operators banned from charging for internet-based communications services.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2011/06/24/net-neutrality-integrated-dutch-law/1

 

They gonna have to bite the bullet, they can't always fleece the public.

 

This is the right way to go, data is data.

 

You can say that but the companies have to make money somehow. That said freestuff who's gonna say no? lol

 

Well done the Dutch. Now if everyone else could stop kissing coporations butts that would be good.

 

This article pleases me and gives me some relief from the Digital Economy Act 2010. I'm pleased that in this case money from large companies isn't pushing the Dutch government into creating negative legislation.

 

ahh but now all the mobile operators will do is increase the cost of that data plan

 

They're already making money by charging for the connection. They can't double-dip like this.

 

For anyone unsure what it's all about :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt0XUocViE

And Ed Vaizey thinks ISPs, quote:"should be free to abandon net neutrality"

The European Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes (who happens to be Dutch btw). Thinks one possible solution is to enshrine Net neutrality into european law (there is currently a consultation). Some guess the only reason this hasn't happened already is massive lobbying on behalf of the big european telecom firms . The UK govt is simply asking big ISPs what they want .

So far, all Kroes has said is, she wants to see people able to end contracts with ISPs at short notice without penalties, thus offering the chance to show what you think of an ISP that does start messing with neutrality. It's likely the Tories will fight any enshrining.

 

It's a good thing

 

At least I can now create a list of countries to move to if it all does go digitally tits-up on the net here in the UK.

 

The network providers have plenty of opportunity to make money by providing a fast, reliable service and charging us accordingly.

I really don't see any need for tie-ups between content providers and network providers -- it's just a recipe for the sort of exclusivity deals that will make it that much harder for new entrants to either market and reduce our freedom of choice in relation to either market.

But of course the incumbent UK government typically goes a bit weak at the knees in the presence of big business and is likely to roll over, as Ed Vaizey implies.

I look forward to a day when BT customers can only play CoD and O2 customers can only play MoH (neither being able to play TF2, of course, because that will only be available on Virgin...)

P.S. -- Good luck Neelie Kroes!!

 

Neelie Kroes has a good track record of sticking up for consumers and smacking down powerful interests. It'd be good if there an EU-wide net neutrality directive came from this.

 

+1, time Mobile providers stop shafting consumers and delaying the inevitable that voice and mms and texts should all be charged as data

 

Yeah, blame the Tories, because Labour on the other hand spent 13 years defending our rights and privileges... [Cue howls of laughter]

Back on topic - good for the Dutch.

 

Well, the Tories are very pro-business, but then...Peter Mandelson.

 

Why assume someone supports Labour because they can't stand the Tories?

Off topic , but FYI, I'm fairly apolitical. Voted LD at the last election . I tend to take things on a policy by policy basis and feel that the British political class collectively, don't understand or care about creative industries or net freedom.

 

I think the point of the Dutch law is that an ISP can't charge for data that the owners of that data wouldn't charge for themselves.

It's not about throttling, which is just slowing down some kinds of data, so even if this came into EU law I can't see it changing anything in the UK, as I don't think any ISPs do charge for certain kinds of data over here.

 

Unfortunately, this is not so.

1GB downloaded in one go at peak times is not the same as 1MB downloaded a thousand times a month at random times.

I don't support abandonment of net neutrality, but there is a genuine concern here. Transferring more data requires more infrastructure and therefore higher costs; nobody is (or should be) getting fat off this. If we want to uphold principles such as net neutrality, we will simply have to pay for it direct in our ISP bills (and that might be fine).

P

 

Though network capacity is, as you say, a different issue , I think if the principle of net neutrality was set in european law, it would bring about changes to the bandwidth throttling practices of ISPs here. For starters, they'd have to set out clearly, what they are doing, when and why, together with precise speed expectations and guarantees. Kroes is fighting for this already.

Anyway, the alternative to a law is the prospect of greedy ISPs double dipping(Vaizey's preferred option). By charging twice for the same data- the customer and websites too. And how would these ISP 'toll booths' affect web content in the short and longer term?

Even if the promise is better(higher bandwidth) infrastructure sooner, that's not worth sacrificing net neutrality for imho.