O2[UK] Wants to Charge Content Providers

    

The real issue behind Net Neutrality was always about sharing content revenues between the carriers and content providers, especially in mobile networks due to the high costs of building the infrastructure to support the demand for bandwidth.  

We saw some statements before (from both parties) - such as "Deutsche Telekom CEO: OTT providers should pay for High Quality" (here) and "Skype: Cooperating with Operators is Good; [Some] Net Neutrality is also Good" (here) and now we get it from O2:

"O2 wants to be able to charge content providers to offer their websites and services on its network, according to the mobile operator's chief executive Ronan Dunne (pictured)"

Story by David Meyer, ZDNet UK - "O2 wants web companies to carry cost of traffic" - here.

"If consumers alone are paying, it's hard to see where the incentive is for content providers to use networks efficiently," Dunne said, adding that he wanted "big companies" to pay their share ..content providers might want to "pay for carriage themselves" in order to provide a better quality of service over a mobile network than their rivals provide .. Competition will help us ensure that democracy does continue to thrive on the internet, even if we do have to manage traffic .. Networks can't under any economic model presume to have unlimited data capability. Part of the solution is to move away from 'one-size-fits-all' ... current explosion in data is driving costs up, [creating] potentially more demand than we can handle"

Compare this the recent statements from the BBC - "BBC: "traffic management may sometimes be necessary" (here) and we can clearly see the fight over Net Neutrality.

See also "DPI/QoS Deployments (24): O2 [UK] New Application and Time of Day Based Tiered Service Policies" - here.