EU launches net neutrality inquiry; joins US, UK, and Canada

All the cool kids are doing it—looking into network neutrality. Canada held a consultation on the idea. Here in the US, the FCC has proposed tough neutrality rules that now seem bogged down by complaints and legal challenges. And the UK last week announced a net neutrality inquiry of its own.

So it’s no surprise that the full European Union would get into the game, and it did so today with a new consultation on net neutrality (PDF).

The European Commission notes that Europe has long relied on “competition” and “transparency” to address concerns about discrimination (and Europe has long patted itself on the back over its line-sharing rules that have created the competition it loves so much). But the new consultation wants to know if competition has really done enough, and if telling customers that you plan to throttle certain protocols within an inch of their lives really does relieve all concerns about traffic management practices.

And what about “managed services,” where ISPs simply run a “separate,” bandwidth-protected service like IPTV over the same pipe?

EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes, the woman who went after Microsoft on antitrust grounds, said, “I am committed to keeping the Internet open and neutral. Consumers should be able to access the content they want. Content providers and operators should have the right incentives to keep innovating. But traffic management and net neutrality are highly complex issues. I do not assume that one approach or another should prevail. We need input from all sides so we can examine all the issues carefully, in a very objective way, strike the right balance between all the interests involved and work out what new measures, if any, may be needed.”

The Commission, committed to the “open and neutral character of the Internet,” is taking comments from today through September 30 on a host of questions about the end-to-end principle, traffic management, and just why it is that wireless operators are blocking VoIP services. If competition and transparency aren’t enough on their own, regulation could be forthcoming.