Net Neutrality Debate Returns to Germany

The political debate over Net Neutrality in Germany started 3 years ago (see "Net Neutrality Discussion in Germany (II) - DT Position" - here), and has been quiet since then. Recently, Deutsche Telecom created some partnerships with OTT providers (see "DT to Offer Zero-Rate Video Calls, Messaging, File sharing and Music Services" - here) while introducing a new DSL throttling policy (here).

This may have been too much (remember the KPN case? - here).

Iain Morris reports to Telecom Engine that "Germany’s government is planning to introduce new ‘net neutrality’ [see below and here, German] legislation that would prevent internet service providers like Deutsche Telekom from treating content providers differently in terms of connection speeds .. The rules have been proposed by Philipp Roesler [pictured], Germany’s economy minister, who is set to present them before Germany’s government at the end of the current legislative period .. If approved by both the upper and lower houses of parliament, the legislation would allow the Federal Network Agency, Germany’s telecoms regulator, to penalize abuses of so-called ‘net neutrality’ – the principle that all internet traffic be treated equally and fairly by network operators".

See also "Internetanbieter müssen alle Daten in gleicher Weise übermitteln" - here.

 
See "German minister proposes net neutrality rules to rein in Deutsche Telekom: report" - here.