Germany: Chancellor Merkel Supports Fast Lanes for "New Uses" of the Internet

In the series "World leaders views on Net Neutrality", the next episode comes from Germany's Chancellor, Ms. Angela Merkel,

[See President Obama's position - "What's Next for Net Neutrality?" - here]

Adam Westlake reports to Slashgear that "German leader Angela Merkel made comments earlier in the week on the topic of net neutrality .. Merkel's position is in favor of a two-tier internet, where the "fast lane" will be for priority speeds, as long as ISPs have been paid their additional fees, while the other lane is supposed to act as the internet we know today. She feels that the future development of new uses for the internet is actually dependent on a two-tier format, as opposed to net neutrality proponents who feel a single, equal net is needed for growth.

.. new advancements like driverless vehicles or telemedicine wouldn't be able to function properly without priority treatment, regardless if ISPs need to charge more for their higher speeds". 

Ms. Merkel spoke at the "digitising Europe" conference, hosted by Vodafone. See the full speech (in German) - "Rede von Bundeskanzlerin Merkel zum Digitising Europe Summit am 4. Dezember 2014" - here.

 

See "German Chancellor voices support for fast lane internet, opposing net neutrality" - here.

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.

Germany: 300,000 Copyright Infringements Disclosed Every Month

  

ECO, the German ISP Association, announced that German ISPs provides the details of 300,000 Internet users that are suspected of copyright infringements to the content owners every month.

Nevertheless, "Increased tracking and expansion of legal download services led to decreased the number of online pirates since 2008 by more than 20 percent ..  In parallel, the number of legal music downloads grew by more than 30 percent to 77.7 million in 2010" (see chart below).

See "300.000 Adressen pro Monat: erfolgreicher Kampf gegen illegale Downloads" (here, German).

Recently, France HADOPI also reported sucess in reducing piracy - see "France Hadopi - Shows Success (while working)" - here.

Telefonica Follows Verizon and 3UK: Offers VoIP services to O2 Customers

 

If you can't beat them ... join them.

Telefonica announced a new VoIP service for its European mobile brand, O2. Unlike 3UK (see "Skype Does Good for 3UK" - here) and Verizon (see "Verizon likes Skype" - here), Telefonica will use its own Jajah service which it acquired last December for $207M ( see "Telefónica Acquires IP Communications Leader JAJAH" - here).

So this is not an OTT service. A new Net Neutrality challenge.

See the press release: "Telefónica Europe launches IP-based consumer phone services" - here.

"The first in a wide range of services powered by JAJAH is being launched today by O2 in Germany just six months after parent company Telefónica acquired the innovative Silicon Valley start-up .. The JAJAH IP Communications Platform also means that O2 customers will enjoy all the usual benefits of mobile VOIP without the hassle of software downloads, new hardware or complex installs .. In a first for any innovative IP-based voice solution anywhere in the world, the roll-out of Telefónica’s JAJAH-powered services will be supported by major advertising and media marketing campaigns in the coming months"

Related posts:

• Frost & Sullivan: Mobile Operators Should not Impose Bans or Surcharges to VoIP - here
• Skype: We Will Charge 3G Calls to Ensure QoS Stays High - here

Net Neutrality Discussion in Germany (II) - DT Position

  

Earlier this month we heard about the German parliament discussion on Net Neutrality (see "Net Neutrality Discussion in Germany" - here). Now we get the Deutsche Telekom position. In one word "NO" for Net Neutrality.

DT CEO, Rene Obermann , told the Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) - ""Without our telecommunications networks and modern primary products there wouldn't be any online services coming from Google or Apple,". He has also said he would like to "charge companies offering data-intensive online services more for use of the Telekom's networks. Google, for instance, may be asked to pay Telekom extra for priority rights to stream its YouTube videos over the company's networks." See more in a Deutsche Welle article - here.

For many years, carriers such as Deutsche Telekom saw themselves as providers of dumb pipes. I remember DT managers telling me that "we don't care what we transfer on our network; we move our customers' bits from point A to point B".

More recently, these carriers realized that not all bits are equal - some have more value, and if a carrier can commit for an SLA to certain applications - this is a business opportunity. Yet, most of the incumbents are not yet deploying DPI/traffic control solutions, not to mention charging content owners for SLAa.

DT's official response (by DT's spokeswoman Marion Kessing) to Deutsche Welle was more conservative - "the company supports net neutrality and existing standards must be maintained  However, data traffic is rising rapidly and that much of this type of traffic, including gaming and television over Internet, can not tolerate delays in the way that traditional web and email traffic could."

Net Neutrality Discussion in Germany

 

It seems that more and more countries in Europe look at Net Neutrality. After seeing the UK (see "Net-Neutrality Crosses the Pond" - here) and while waiting for the French regulator meeting next week (see "Net Neutrality Train Next Stop: France (?)" - here) we get a research paper, published by the Reference and Research Services of the Deutscher Bundestag (German parliament).

The document (here) is in German. A short abstract is available on the Deutscher Bundestag site - "Network neutrality- Network neutrality (also net neutrality, Internet neutrality) is a principle proposed for Internet access that advocates no restrictions on content, sites, or platforms. This principle follows the assumption that the net works best when Internet Service Provider (ISP) deliver every Internet site's traffic without discrimination. The danger is that the Internet might be split into a fast lane and a slow lane. Proponents of the principle of neutrality call for new legislation or regulation to protect network neutrality." 

Going through the document (and using Google Translate) I can see that the following issues are discussed -DPI allowing different level of QoS for different type of traffic, music and Video uploads and downloads causing traffic congestion,  and a discussion of the risk of creating two-classes service by censorship or traffic blocking.

It seems that the idea has wide acceptance in the German parliament and is part of the recent coalition agreement (between the CDU/CSU and FDP parties, signed on December 2009): "We trust that the existing competition will ensure the neutral transmission of data on the internet and other new media (net neutrality) but will observe this closely and, if necessary, take countermeasures to preserve net neutrality" (here).