14 DAY TRIAL // Net neutrality has been making headlines left and right in the past several months, although most eyes have been on the United States since Internet service providers are threatening it as they seek to make heavy users pay more.
This time, however, the focus is on the European Union where a new package of telecom laws has been the topic of discussion. The collection includes the first explicit net neutrality legislation, even though there have been very few issues.
A crucial vote in the European Parliament was supposed to take place on Monday, but was delayed due to a rather small issue, namely translation problems. This means that the packet will be put under vote two weeks later than originally planned.
As it is, European Voice writes that the Industry, Research and Energy committee is already divided on the net neutrality issue, debating about whether Internet service providers should have a way to degrade types of traffic. This would be detrimental to users who expect not to have such issues.
During the last step of the process of passing the law, consumer rights were put first and a series of issues were axed from the original proposal. Specifically, the last committee nixed the explicit right for telcos and content providers to sign deals among each other, while the limitations that an ISP can set to citizens’ Internet traffic have been tightened.
While it’s true that the package of laws also contains other types of things that are particularly useful, it’s important for the net neutrality issue to be fixed accordingly before the final vote. For instance, the European Union will get to have cheaper roaming between member states once the law package passes, which is great considering the hefty bills that users get following each out-of-state trip.
The United States has already lost the battle for net neutrality, but there’s still a good chance for Europe to get it right and to defend the rights of Internet users within the Union.
As it is already known, a judge said that the FCC had no legal power to impose neutrality rules on Internet service providers after classifying them as “information service providers” several years back.
However, as many have stated, while the Federal Communication Commission could still appeal the ruling and take Comcast back to court, it could also take another step that many have speculated – namely to change back the status of ISPs to “communication carriers,” which would mean that the Internet is no more than a utility.