Monday, August 20, 2012

Israel Expands Net Neutrality to Fixed Networks


The Israeli Ministry of Communications published a draft amendment to the Communication Law, expanding Net Neutrality regulation to fixed services.

Israel adopted NN regulation to wireless services in December 2010 (see "Net Neutrality [Israel] - Parliament Approved Wireless Neutrality" - here).

The draft proposal ("Telecommunication operators will be obliged to guarantee the principle of network neutrality and telecom equipment neutrality - here in English; full proposal here in Hebrew) demands that communication service providers of all kinds will not limit or block any service or application provided over the internet (including VoIP, file sharing and video), limit or block features of communication equipment (including by setting special fees), limit or block the use of communication equipment in any licensed network.

Exceptions are limitation or blocking of service or application done in ensure proper and fair network management, or when the Minister of Communication allowed it "in special cases".

In addition, the draft says that all importers, distributors or sellers of communication equipment will also conform to Network Neutrality and will allow consumers to use all features the equipment they sell or maintain.

4 comments:

  1. What are the implications for importers, distributors or sellers of communication equipments? Will the draft proposal be translated in English?

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  2. I believe this refers also to the MNOs in Israel, as they also import/sell mobile devices and prevents them from disabling features.

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  3. English version for the MOC release added to the post

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  4. Nice! ... I really enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.

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