The European Union approved a new law that will enforce net neutrality rules in Europe, assuming the bill is also passed in the Council of Ministers. Consumers' rights advocates and Internet companies like Netflix, which are often victims of slowed service and excessive charges from telecom operators, cheered the law's passage on Thursday.
Many legislators who are representing their countries at the European Union also considered this first stamp of approval a great step towards creating a more free and equal Internet for all.
"This vote is the EU delivering for citizens," said Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for digital affairs. "This is what the EU is all about - getting rid of barriers to make life easier and less expensive. We should know what we are buying, we should not be ripped off, and we should have the opportunity to change our mind."
Now that the bill has been passed, telecom operators will now be "barred from blocking or slowing down selected services for economic or other reasons," read a statement from the Parliament. The telecoms regulator BEREC and European ISPs will no longer be able to deliberately target specific Internet service providers such as Skype, Netflix and BitTorrent. Any slow down in service will now be illegal, unless the telecom operator has a warrant or other official permission to do so.
Telecom operators do this all too frequently in Europe and the United States and often attempt to use threats of slowed down service to get more money from specific sites. Under the new law, any slow down or block of service must not target any specific site, but rather affect everyone equally.
"Today's vote is a great step towards strengthening the telecommunications single market," Pilar del Castillo Vera, a member of the European Parliament from Spain, said in a statement. "We have achieved further guarantees to maintain the openness of the Internet by ensuring that users can run and provide applications and services of their choice as well as reinforcing the Internet as a key driver of competitiveness, economic growth, jobs, social development and innovation."
Although the law may prove detrimental to telecom operators, consumers will most certainly win in this case because Internet service will be more uniform, free and unimpeded.
"Net neutrality is as close as it gets to being the issue of our times for the Internet," said Guillermo Beltra of BEUC, a consumer association. "We are reassured to see members of Parliament say equitable Internet provision must be realised."
Of course, telecom operators were anything but pleased with the verdict. Lobbying group ETNO, which represents telecom companies across Europe, from Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica to Telecom Italia, expressed anger and frustration over the new law.
"Whilst we support an open Internet, a set of misconceptions about our industry, together with a rushed legislative process and a lack of technical analysis, risk transforming the Connected Continent Regulation into an anti-innovation and anti-consumer choice legislation," said a joint statement from four different organizations representing cable and telecom operators. "The current draft legislative compromise in the European Parliament reflects very restrictive views on how the Internet should work and on how specialized services with enhanced quality could be offered."
Meanwhile, the net neutrality debate is at a stand still in the United States. Although a U.S. court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission doesn't have the authority to rule on issues of net neutrality; activists, lawmakers and the FCC itself are working to alter the old rules for the sake of net neutrality. Congress is also considering a bill.
Resistance to a net neutrality bill is even stronger in the United States, where telecom companies and network providers claim that they have the right to deny or slow down service if certain sites do not comply with their terms. The result has been a cold war between telecom providers and Internet service sites like Netflix and Skype.
