Net Neutrality [Israel] - Parliament Approved Wireless Neutrality

   

The Israeli economic committee of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) approved yesterday the Net Neutrality law (see background here).

The new law (which is part of the 2011-12 budget) will (once it get the final approval) prevent wireless operators from "blocking or limiting the use of services and applications delivered over the Internet (including VoIP and Wifi)". Skype is mentioned as an example for such service.

There are exceptions to the law:

1. The minister of communications can approve "fair traffic management" by the operator
2. Subscriber or group of subscribers may ask for the operator to block certain traffic (usually for filtering or devices owned by employers)
    
3. Instruction by the security services, approved by the minister.

See the parliament press release - here (Hebrew).

Operators will not be allowed also to block handsets from using Bluetooth or Wifi services.
Watch the full discussion - here or here.