[France]: Free's Traffic Management does not Discriminate

   

ARCEP, the French regulator, is happy with its ability to monitor ISPs for non conformance to Net Neutrality rules (see "France Implements Monitoring System to Track QoE and Net Neutrality" - here).

This follows a complaint it got against the relations between Free (ISP) and Google (with which the French government has its own issues - see "France Vs. Google (Weapon: bandwidth management)" - here) and inquiry made by ARCEP, trying to understand if users or applications were discriminated.

The agency announced it ".. closes the administrative inquiry involving several companies, including Free and Google, on the technical and financial terms governing IP traffic routing. If the inquiry did not reveal any discriminatory practices in the terms governing interconnection and IP traffic routing between the two companies, it did confirm the relevance of ARCEP’s monitoring of these issues, and its goal of providing internet users with clear information on the quality of internet access services in France" 

".. Over a six-month observation period, the enquiry made it possible to ascertain:- that traffic between Free and Google is relayed both directly, via peering, and indirectly through paid interconnection involving several international transit providers;- that Free’s interconnection and IP data traffic routing capacities are congested during peak hours, as use of the most bandwidth-hungry applications continues to rise. This is an issue that all ISPs are having to contend with. The inquiry did not reveal any discriminatory practices in the terms governing interconnection and IP traffic routing between the two companies".

".. The inquiry did not reveal that Free was employing traffic management techniques on its network that differentiated traffic routing conditions based on the type of content, its origin, its destination or the type of protocol used"

See "Net neutrality" - here.

France Implements Monitoring System to Track QoE and Net Neutrality

The French regulator, ARCEP, announced that "The minister responsible for electronic communications having approved the ARCEP decision of 29 January 2013, the Authority has introduced a system for measuring and tracking the quality of fixed internet access services [see below or here].

The aim is to improve the information available to internet users, and to provide ARCEP with the means to fulfil its duty to supervise the overall quality of fixed calling and internet access services. This system is also part of the work and discussions and that ARCEP has been conducting since 2010 on the technical and economic aspects of net neutrality.

The new system has two components: main measurements performed in a controlled environment and on dedicated lines, and supplementary measurements performed by users themselves:

• The main measurements, which are to be performed by operators, are carried out on dedicated test lines, inside a technically-controlled environment whose conditions make it possible to achieve a high degree of comparison between operators, and a sufficiently broad representation of the various network access conditions that users encounter. The metrics obtained in this fashion concern seven performance indicators: four generic technical indicators (particularly throughput) and three indicators relating to specific types of usage: web browsing, streaming video and peer-to-peer file sharing. These measurements will be carried out separately on fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and fibre-to-the-last-amplifier (FTTLA) connections, as well as the copper local loop (whose lines will be segmented by transmission capacity)".

• The supplementary measurements, for which ARCEP will be responsible, will consist of tests that volunteer users will perform using their own equipment. Thanks to a web-based interface, these users will be able to measure their line's performance, and transmit the results to ARCEP. The Authority will thus be able to refer to these supplementary metrics to check that the main measurements are consistent and representative of the user experience".

See "ARCEP introduces a system for measuring and tracking the quality of fixed internet access services" - here.

France Vs. Google (Weapon: bandwidth management)

Slovenia, Chile, the Netherlands - and even the US already have Net Neutrality laws, but French ISPs are busy fighting with content providers (i.e. Google) - trying to push the American giant to pay for traffic delivery.

Two years ago the French Government said that "Google and Foreign OTTs to Pay for Networks Usage" (here) but since then the French regulator, ARCEP, called for the "elimination of service blocking (VoIP, P2P) on mobile networks" (here). French ISPs are not impressed.

• TeleGeography reports (here) that "The French operator France Telecom-Orange (FT-Orange) is reportedly restricting bandwidth for online video services such as YouTube as part of a peering dispute with Google and its internet backbone provider Cogent Communications. According to a report from Fierce Wireless, FT-Orange wants Cogent to pay for the additional traffic being generated by streaming video services, and its decision to charge for access has been backed up by the French competition watchdog Autorite de la Concurrence.
  
  Meanwhile, technology minister Fleur Pellerin (pictured) has commented: ‘We need to ask serious questions about how Web companies can put some money into networks,’ Bloomberg reports".
     

• The French ISP Free announced (here) it will block ads for their home gateway users (by default!). This time the French Government demanded that Free wont do that - see "France Rejects Plan by Internet Provider to Block Online Ads"(here), and Free gave-up. 

ARCEP Sees Decrease in Use of TM in Mobile; Plans to Monitor QoS on Fixed Networks

   

ARCEP, the French regulator, published an update on its work on Net Neutrality for France. Following are several  quotes from its press release on the new report:

"Through the Law of 22 March 2011, Parliament has asked ARCEP to provide an update on the status of net neutrality. ARCEP submitted today its report to Parliament and the Government on this issue.

In September 2010, ARCEP published 10 proposals [here] that aimed at defining a sustainable, neutral and high-quality equilibrium for the functioning of the Internet, combined with tools to ensure this equilibrium is maintained and to guarantee it if needed ..  However, competition and transparency alone are not always enough Therefore ARCEP has engaged further efforts to ensure the ecosystem runs smoothly and stakeholders comply with the principles laid out in 2010.

• .. to track the quality of Internet access services, ARCEP will adopt a decision before the end of this year that specifies the quality of service indicators for fixed networks, which will be measured and made public, in complement of those already measured for mobile networks   

• ..  ARCEP has undertaken an inventory of traffic management practices implemented by operators - e.g. throttling, blocking or priority queues.-. Thanks in particular to competition, ARCEP has noticed a decrease in the use of these practices especially on mobile networks. Certain practices are nevertheless contrary to the framework set in 2010 which consists of five assessment criteria. ARCEP is therefore calling, among others, for the steady elimination of service blocking (VoIP, P2P) on mobile networks. If the market fails to make sufficient progress on its own, the current legislation gives the Authority the powers needed to intervene.

Source: ARCEP Report, September 2012

• .. the interconnection business model, namely the relationships between Internet players, is evolving gradually and can give rise to conflicts: it needs to be better understood. In light of its analysis of the current state of the market, ARCEP considers that there is no need to strengthen the regulatory framework at this stage. The regular collection of information introduced by the Authority's decision of 29 March 2012 has produced its first results this summer 2012 and allows ARCEP to keep track of these trends, to analyse them and take action accordingly.
      [See related news about a recent decision given in the case of Orange-Cogent dispute over their peering agreement - "France Télécom may ask to be remunerated for opening additional capacity but it must clarify the commercial and billing relationship between its Internet access and Internet transit businesses" - here; Similar to the Comcast-Level3 case from two years ago (here). 

 ... It is now for Parliament and the Government to determine the follow-up to be given to this report.

See "Net Neutrality" - here.

ARCEP Calls for the "elimination of service blocking (VoIP, P2P) on mobile networks"

   

ARCEP, the French regulator, announced that it has submitted "the draft version of its report to Parliament and the Government on Net neutrality to public consultation" (here, French).
 

In September 2010, ARCEP published "10 propositions for Network Neutrality" (here) and the public consultation contributions it received by then (here). "The projects that began, and about which Parliament has queried ARCEP, concern transparency, quality of service, interconnection and traffic management .. ARCEP and the State departments responsible for telecommunications and consumer affairs co-host a working group on this issue that is populated by the sector’s stakeholders. Its conclusions will be made public in autumn 2012".

  

"However, competition and transparency alone are not enough, and need to be completed by other actions in the arena of quality of service, interconnection and traffic management:

• .. to track the quality of internet access services and avoid the creation of an internet that operates “at several speeds,” ARCEP will adopt a decision in summer 2012 – which comes to complement the existing scheme on mobile networks – and which specifies QoS indicators for wireline networks which will be measured and made public
   
• ARCEP has taken an inventory of traffic management practices – i.e. the differentiated treatment of internet traffic streams, such as throttling, blocking or priority queues – being employed by operators today. Under certain circumstances, these practices could hinder the principle of Net neutrality .. ARCEP is therefore calling for the steady elimination of service blocking (VoIP, P2P) on mobile networks. If the market fails to make sufficient progress on its own, the Law gives ARCEP the powers needed to enforce its recommendations.
   

See "ARCEP submits draft version of its report to Parliament and the Government on Net neutrality to public consultation" - here.

A "Bizarre" French Idea – Data Caps on Fixed Service

  
The press reports that "Three major internet service providers in France are discussing plans to introduce caps on "unlimited" web access - making heavy users pay a surcharge .. SFR, Orange and Bouygues are looking at the case for bringing in new limits on the packages they offer to domestic customers, in order to better control traffic levels .. Free said it had "reservations" and Numéricable said it was "not involved" in the talks".

We use to see this strategy with wireless providers, but this one refers to fixed service. Nevertheless, we have seen this before in other places (Comcast, Canada, AT&T - DSL)- but still Arcep, the regulator said the idea was "bizarre".

"One of the most vocal critics of the idea this weekend was Marine Le Pen (pictured), the leader of the far-right Front National. She is drawing up an "internet freedom" law including a clause that would make web access "a fundamental right for every citizen" (here, French). 

   

See "Operators plan cap on 'unlimited' web" (here) or "Bientôt la fin de l'internet illimité à domicile ?" (here, French)

France - Something is Missing in ARCEP's Reasonable Traffic Management

  

When watching the news from France, it seems that the public is only interested in the government’s pension plan changes. However, according to ARCEP the communications regulator, some people are also interested in ARCEP's plans for network neutrality.

During a one hour of chat (hosted by Nadia Trainar (pictured) and Guillaume Mellier of ARCEP), 487 people asked 102 questions (of which 60 made directly during the chat). The script (in French) is available here.

One of the questions was about "une gestion admissible du trafic" (or "reasonable traffic management", in the US definition).

The answer is:

"For us, first thing is to consider the purpose of a traffic management practice. Some services cannot exist without some of quality of service or security guarantees ... This is the case, for example of VOD. In other cases it may be priorities imposed by regulation - for example, emergency calls. These are examples of what is called "managed services". For internet access, however, the normal operating mode is without traffic management".

This response does not consider (or actually ignores) the congestion issue, or other aspects of "fair" allocation of network resources. Compare to - USA, Israel.

ARCEP: All you Need to Know on Network Neutrality

   

ARCEP published its quarterly "Les cahiers de l'ARCEP" available for download here. 

French readers will enjoy 56 pages, of which 48 are dedicated to the Net Neutrality debate - covering all point of views, including consumers, operators, content providers (Skype) and vendors (Alcatel-Lucent) and explaining the status in the USA, EU and Norway and many other aspects of the issue. See the table of contents below.

See also -

• ARCEP [France] Published Net Neutrality Public Consultation Contributions - here
• ARCEP [France]: 10 propositions for Network Neutrality - here

ARCEP [France] Published Net Neutrality Public Consultation Contributions

  

After releasing a document with 10 propositions aimed to ensure a balanced, neutral and quality internet service (see "ARCEP [France]: 10 propositions for Network Neutrality" - here) ARCEP released the public contributions it got during the process. The files are available for download here.

An overwhelming number of 43 vendors, operators, content providers and other organizations made a contribution - including Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, BT, Cable & Wireless, Canal+, Colt, Free, GSMA, Orange (France Telecom),Qualcomm, SFR, Skype, Tekelec, TF1 (French TV), Verizon, Vodafone and Von Europe.  

ARCEP [France]: 10 propositions for Network Neutrality

     

ARCEP, the French regulator, published 10 propositions aimed to ensure a balanced, neutral and quality internet service.

See "L'ARCEP publie dix propositions et recommandations pour promouvoir un internet neutre et de qualité" (French, here) and the document  - here.

See also Net Neutrality in France - "we need some regulation" - here

The 10 propositions relate to:

1. Freedom and quality of Internet access
2. Non-discrimination of traffic flows
3. Framework for mechanisms to manage traffic access to the internet
4. Managed services
5. Transparency to end-users
6. Monitoring of traffic management practices
7. Monitoring the Internet QoS
8. Monitoring Interconnection market data
9. Taking into account the role of ISPs in Net Neutrality
10. Strengthening the neutrality of the terminals

France: Mobile Data Speed Increased by 50% During 2009

 

ARCEP, the French regulator, published the results of Quality of service of 2G and 3G Mobile Networks survey for 2009.

See the press release - "QUALITY OF SERVICE OF MOBILE NETWORKS"- here and the report (here, French)

Regarding data services, the survey finds that - "File transfer tests were performed in the 12 largest metropolitan areas in France, and in 20 towns and cities with a population of between 50,000 and 400,000, using USB keys or PCMCIA cards plugged into a laptop computer, or directly via the netbooks that telecom carriers sell. The results of these tests reveal average speeds that are more than one and a half times higher than those obtained in 2008: an average download speed of 2.2 Mbit/s and more than 5 Mbit/s for the fastest services and, for sending files, an average upload speed of 1.2 Mbit/s and more than 1.7 Mbit/s for the fastest services. These speeds were achieved using the most high-end solution that each telco markets in its retail outlets. These bitrates are comparable to the access rates supplied by entry-level ADSL fixed network services.

The following tables show the results of uploading a 1MB and downloading a 5 MB files in the top 12 cities of France (map below), by the 3 mobile operators (First line is the % of files received;  next lines are 90, 50  and 10 percentile speeds). The two big players, Orange and SFR,  results are similar, while Bouygues is significantly lower in all categories.

Net Neutrality in France - "we need some regulation"

   

We were waiting for the ARCEP conference on Net Neutrality in France (see "Net Neutrality Train Next Stop: France (?)" - here).
 
In the meantime we saw how things have changed quickly in the US - reducing the likelihood that Net Neutrality will become a regulation there.

 

The conference took place as planned (agenda - here), and was concluded by Jean-Ludovic Silicani, président de l’ARCEP (French regulator), setting "5 main conclusions" (document, in French - here) - including:

• The Internet business (ISP, Content providers) should be transparent
   
• A certain degree of traffic management should be allowed, when congestion occurs and it is done in a transparent and non-discriminating way. It is expected that there will be differences between fixed and mobile carriers
   
• A certain level of regulation is needed - the internet eco-system cannot be exclusively self-regulated

This sounds very similar to the FCC proposed guidelines for Net Neutrality. During the day, it was mentioned that French MNOs are/were blocking VoIP (Skype), while they are investing Billions of Euros in network infrastructure - the classical Net Neutrality conflict. See more here.

 

Mr. Silicani concluded by hoping that France could lead the "Global Net Neutrality" discussion.

 

Video interviews with conference participants available here.

Net Neutrality Train Next Stop: France (?)

 

The French regulator ARCEP (Autorité de Régulation des Communications Electroniques et des Postes) will convene on April 13 to discuss Network Neutrality (see press release - here - English !!).

In the video interview below, (French), the Chairman, Jean-Ludovic Silicani, says that it is an important subject, world-wide, and explains the ideas behind Neutrality for fixed and mobile networks, customers, carriers and content providers.

The agenda is here.

Note the participation of Tim Wu, one of the Net-Neutrality promoters. See Tim's "Network Neutrality FAQ" (here) - where he tries to define Neutrality; this is used by many as a reference model and the legal foundation for Net Neutrality

We can also see that HADOPI, that deals with copy-right protection (the 3-strikes law), a high profile issue in France. While it is referred to in the FCC Net Neutrality guidelines (FCC protects "legal traffic" only) - it seems that in the French case it will get special attention.