Net neutrality has emerged as one of the most consequential issues in the telecommunications sector, with the potential to reshape the internet as we know it. The European Commission launched an antitrust probe to determine whether quality-dependent over-the-top (OTT) services such as Netflix were being deliberately slowed in favor of ISPs’ own services.
The inspections aimed to establish whether internet service providers were abusing their market position to distort competition online and undermine the open environment that helped the internet grow into a vital part of the global economy.
In an announcement, the Commission stated: “The Commission found no evidence of behaviour aimed at foreclosing transit services from the market or at providing an unfair advantage to the telecoms operators’ own proprietary content services.”
As one industry voice summarized: “OTT players are the ones driving digital demand, demand for your services! That is something you can work with, not against.”
In the United States, proposals from some ISPs to the Federal Communications Commission have called for regulators to permit the creation of “fast lanes” reserved for large OTT providers whose users generate heavy bandwidth usage. Those proposals provoked strong public backlash, and the deadline for submitting comments had to be extended repeatedly to accommodate the volume of responses.
Recent analysis showed overwhelming public support for strong net neutrality protections. For example, The Sunlight Foundation analyzed more than 800,000 comments submitted to the FCC and found that approximately 99% favored stronger net neutrality rules. At the same time, a petition from Google advocating that “a free and open world depends on a free and open web” collected more than three million signatures.
Neelie Kroes, the outgoing Vice President of the European Commission, addressed the relationship between OTT providers and telcos in her farewell speech. She noted that the challenges European telecom operators face are not simply the “fault” of OTT services. “Today, all EU homes have broadband coverage; 76% have a connection; almost half can access it on their mobile,” she said. “Consumers demand greater and greater bandwidth, faster and faster speeds, and are prepared to pay for it.”
She went on to emphasize the role of OTT services in driving that demand: “But how many of them would do that if there were no over-the-top services? If there were no Facebook, no YouTube, no Netflix, no Spotify? OTT players are the ones driving digital demand, demand for your services! That is something you can work with, not against.”
The initial memo announcing the July investigation explained that the identities of the companies under review would not be disclosed at such an early stage. Now that the Commission has cleared the companies involved, their names will remain confidential to avoid unjust harm to their reputations.
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(Image Credit: Me2)