1. Net Neutrality: Final Act
Restoring and preserving net neutrality in Europe
(now)
Jean-Jacques Sahel
Government and Regulatory Affairs, EMEA

2. “There is a near consensus on the
importance of preserving the openness of
the internet”
(European Commission, 9 Nov 2011)

3. „Broadband without Internet ain‟t worth squat‟
“Ten years ago mobile operators in Europe, North America
and North Asia were trying to figure out how to justify the
investment in 3G licenses and networks.
And now, here we are at the end of 2010 and operators are
again trying to work out how to make the business case for
rolling out the next-generation of wireless (LTE) and fixed
(fiber) networks.”
(Informa Mobile Industry Outlook 2011)

4. “First it can’t possibly work, and if it did,
damned if we are going to allow the creation of a
competitor to ourselves.”

5. “… currently there do not seem to be
significant risks and evidence that
exclusionary behaviour is an endemic
feature of competition in Europe …”

6. “US: not very competitive” “EU: very competitive”
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: no restrictions ;  : MNO with restrictions (beyond reasonable traffic management)
Including on VoIP, P2P, video, audio, tethering, newsgroups, IM, software updates, etc.

7. The competition law approach
“It's not OK for Skype and other such services
to be throttled. That is anti-competitive.”
(Neelie Kroes, 2011)

8. Transparency on its own will harm net neutrality
New EU Telecom Package, inc. basic
protections of net neutrality
+
NRA report confirming transparency as
the only „enforcement tool‟ used *
=
All mobile operators in Sweden moved
from no restrictions in Internet access
to ALL of them restricting VoIP.
(* parallel NRA report says more than
half of Swedish users don‟t know they
can switch, or don‟t know how to)

9. “Transparency is a fundamental mean to
achieve regulatory objectives …
other net neutrality aspects … need to be
considered in complement to transparency”
(BEREC, draft guidelines on transparency and net
neutrality, 2011)

10. Defining the problem accurately
“Network neutrality is best defined as a network
design principle.
The idea is that a maximally useful public
information network aspires to treat all
content, sites and platforms equally.
This allows the network to carry every form of
information and support every kind of application”
(Tim Wu, 2005)

11. Defining the problem accurately
What the open character of the Internet is about:
“End-users should be able to decide what content they want to send and
receive, and which services, applications, hardware and software they want to use
for such purposes, without prejudice to the need to preserve the integrity and
security of networks and services.”
Recital 28, EC Citizens’ Rights Directive 2009
“End-users‟ should have the ability to access and distribute the
information or run the applications and use the services of their
choice on the Internet, subject to reasonable traffic management”
(from Framework Directive + FCC + ARCEP + Norway’Guidelines + Singapore Decision +
Dutch bill)

12. Sending the right signals

13. Sending the right signals
1. “Internet” = Internet. The only limits, if any, should be on speed or volume.
(email + a few webpages is not the Internet; there isn‟t a „mobile Internet‟, etc.)
2. Consumers should be clearly informed whether what they are buying is
„the Internet‟, or not
3. Traffic management deemed reasonable only if
exceptional, relevant, proportional, efficient, transparent and non-
discriminatory (ARCEP 2010)
4. It is neither desirable in any case, nor timely, to charge for Internet traffic
delivery or origination
5. The open road shouldn‟t be(come) a dirt road, or open only to a lucky few
(a high quality (best efforts) Internet should remain)

14. Don‟t wait to support our future:
Innovators (and users) cannot wait forever

15. No Net Neutrality = No Digital Agenda targets met
(and a much, much smaller telecom industry)