Singapore Takes an Extreme Net Neutrality Regulation

History repeats itself. In 2011, KPN tried to surcharge OTT services, and the result was that The Netherlands adopted a Net Neutrality law (see "Nice try, KPN - Netherlands First European Country to Adopt Net Neutrality" - here).

Last week, during her presentation at MWC, Sock Koong Chua [pictured], CEO, Singtel said she "urged regulators to give carriers like Optus the right to charge rivals such as WhatsApp and Skype for use of their networks or risk a major decline in network investment" (report by David Ramli, to Financial Review, here).

And the result? A very strict Net Neutrality regulation.

Mobile World Live reports that "Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), Singapore’s regulator, has said the country’s mobile operators will not be allowed to block or charge a fee to subscribers who access OTT services .. ISPs are not allowed to block legitimate internet content; neither should they impose restrictions, charges or other measures that will render any legitimate internet content effectively inaccessible or unusable.”

In addition, it said ISPs are not allowed to adopt traffic management practices that will compromise QoS standards or any anti-competitive discriminatory practice what would hurt consumers".

See "Singapore’s regulator warns operators on OTT charges" - here.