Zuckerberg: "What reason is there for denying people free access to vital services?"

 Facebook hosting Indian Prime Minister 

Narendra Modi, Sep. 2015

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, continues to defend its Free Basics service, which became the symbol of India's Net Neutrality debate (see "[India]: TRAI Stops Free Facebook" - here).

In an article to The Times of India, Mr. Zuckerbrge summarizes his position in one sentence "To connect a billion people, India must choose facts over fiction"

".. In every society, there are certain basic services that are so important for people’s well being that we expect everyone to be able to access them freely .. libraries .. free basic healthcare .. free basic education .. And in the 21st century, everyone also deserves access to the tools and information that can help them to achieve all those other public services, and all their fundamental social and economic rights.

That’s why everyone also deserves access to free basic internet services .. when people have access to free basic internet services, these quickly overcome the digital divide.

.. Over the last year Facebook has worked with mobile operators, app developers and civil society to overcome these barriers in India and more than 30 other countries.

We launched Free Basics, a set of basic internet services for things like education, healthcare, jobs and communication that people can use without paying for data.

More than 35 operators have launched Free Basics and 15 million people have come online. And half the people who use Free Basics to go online for the first time pay to access the full internet within 30 days .. Who could possibly be against this?

Surprisingly, over the last year there’s been a big debate about this in India .. Right now the TRAI is inviting the public to help decide whether free basic internet services should be offered in India .. What reason is there for denying people free access to vital services for communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming and women’s rights?

See "Free Basics protects net neutrality" - here.

[India]: TRAI Stops Free Facebook

Another step in India's Net Neutrality regulation process (see "India Planned Net Neutrality Laws" - here).

Even before its public consultation over ‘Differential Pricing for Data Services’ [here] the telecom regulator, TRAI, has taken an action on the partnership between Reliance Communications and Facebook.

[Related post - "FB CEO: We Support Net Neutrality (w/ Zero Rating)" - here and "Aircel [India] Offers Facebook Aware Service" - here]

The BBC reported that "Facebook's effort to provide Indians with free access to a limited number of internet services has run into trouble.India's telecoms regulator has asked the mobile network that partnered with the US firm to put their Free Basics offer on hold.

A spokesman for Reliance Communications - the mobile network that had supported the scheme - confirmed it would comply with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's demand. "As directed by TRAI, the commercial launch of Free Basics has been kept in abeyance, until they consider all details and convey a specific approval," a spokesman told the BBC.

Facebook said that it would continue to lobby for its scheme. "We are committed to Free Basics and to working with Reliance and the relevant authorities to help people in India get connected," a spokeswoman said".

See "India puts brakes on Facebook's Free Basics scheme" - here.

India - 600,000 Comments so far on Differential Pricing Regulation

BGR reports that India's "Telecom regulator TRAI has received around six lakh [i.e. 600,0000] comments on its consultation paper over ‘Differential Pricing for Data Services’ [here]— one of the important issues under net neutrality principles.

“Till Thursday, Trai received about 540,000 comments. These comments have suddenly come and mostly around Facebook’s Free Basics service [see "FB CEO: We Support Net Neutrality (w/ Zero Rating" - here]. Today comments would have crossed six lakh,” an official source told PTI. The last date for comments on the consultation paper is December 30 and for counter comments is January 7."

TRAI's questions to the public are: 

1. Should the TSPs be allowed to have differential pricing for data usage for accessing different websites, applications or platforms?
    
2. If differential pricing for data usage is permitted, what measures should be adopted to ensure that the principles of nondiscrimination, transparency, affordable internet access, competition and market entry and innovation are addressed?
    
3. Are there alternative methods/technologies/business models, other than differentiated tariff plans, available to achieve the objective of providing free internet access to the consumers? If yes, please suggest/describe these methods/technologies/business models. Also, describe the potential benefits and disadvantages associated with such methods/technologies/business models?
    
4. Is there any other issue that should be considered in the present consultation on differential pricing for data services?

See "TRAI receives 6 lakh comments on second net neutrality paper so far" - here.

FB CEO: We Support Net Neutrality (w/ Zero Rating)

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg expressed his views on the Net Neutrality debate in India (see "India Planned Net Neutrality Laws" - here and "Google India: "strong protest" Against Including Zero Rating in Net Neutrality" - here). Facebook is promoting its  intewrnet.org initiative to allow affordable access to developing countries around the world (see "Update to Internet.org Free Basic Services - here).

Press Trust of India reports that ".. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg [pictured] on Wednesday said his company is committed to net neutrality but supported zero-rating plans which have been criticised by many as violative of the principles of free Internet

When asked if Facebook supports net neutrality, Zuckerberg said: "Absolutely. Net neutrality is important principle. We do a lot to support both in terms of regulation and in our own work building an open platform that any developer can build something for regardless of who they are if they follow the basic rules ..  Internet.org and Facebook are 100 per cent supportive of net neutrality, we lobby for it across the world, we build an open platform with no filtering but at the same time we also need to make sure that we continue to push for access," Zuckerberg said

He said providing free Internet to everyone in the world is expensive and telecom operators spend billions each year bringing Internet to users. "What we are really trying to do is to use Free Basics (previously known as Internet.org) so that any developer who can give low bandwidth services for free can be zero-rated

On zero-rating plans of telecom firms like Bharti Airtel [see "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here], Zuckerberg said: "But to those who advocate against zero- rating I say look at a student who wants free access to the Internet for her studies

See "Zuckerberg affirms net neutrality but backs zero-rating plans" - here.

The EU Approves Net Neutrality

The European parliament approved the "Open access to internet" rules (see "The EU 'Enshrines Net Neutrality’s no Blocking or Throttling Rules'" - here and the proposal's text here).

"The new law will oblige firms offering internet access to treat all traffic equally, i.e. not to block or slow delivery of content, applications or services from selected senders or to selected receivers, unless this is necessary to obey court orders, comply with laws, prevent network congestion or combat cyber-attacks. If such traffic management measures are needed, they will have to be "transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate" and may not last for longer than necessary.

An operator will nonetheless be able to offer specialized services (such as the improved internet quality needed for certain services), but only on condition that this does not have an impact on general internet quality". 

In addition - "MEPs ensured that internet providers will have to give users who are about to sign fixed or mobile internet contracts a clear explanation of what download and upload speeds (compared to the advertised speed) they can usually expect. 

Any significant discrepancy that is continuous or occurs regularly will trigger a right to remedies such as terminating the contract or getting compensation. The national regulatory authorities will be responsible for verifying whether the difference is a breach of contract or not"

See "End in sight for mobile phone “roaming” fees and unequal internet access" - here.

Google India: "strong protest" Against Including Zero Rating in Net Neutrality

Google, like other content providers, is traditionally in favor on Net Neutrality laws - see the US example - "FCC Expected to Adopt Net Neutrality this Quarter; Google Supports Neutrality" (here).

However, since the Indian regulator, TRAI is considering Zero-rating as "against the principles of Net Neutrality [see "India Planned Net Neutrality Laws" - here and "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here], Google (and Facebook) seem to change sides.

Nikhil Pahwa reports to MEDIANAMA that "Google joined hands with Facebook to try and prevent the Internet and Mobile Association of India, which represents some of the largest Internet companies in India, from taking a stand that counters Zero Rating. 

According to emails exchanged between IAMAI’s Government Relations committee members, of which MediaNama has copies, Vineeta Dixit [pictured], a member of Google’s Public Policy and and Government Relations team, strongly pushed for the removal of any mention of Zero Rating from the IAMAI’s submission, as a response to the Department of Telecom’s report on Net Neutrality. Please note that Google hasn’t responded to our queries, despite multiple reminders.

..Dixit’s email to the IAMAI government relations committee, while reasoning that there is no consensus on Zero Rating, asked for its removal from the submission, saying: “We would like to register strong protest against this formulation and would request you to remove this (Zero Rating) from the submission.” Another email in that list indicates that only Facebook in the IAMAI has taken a stand supporting Zero Rating, and, funnily enough, STAR has taken positions both supporting and being non-committal on Zero Rating. This is a bizarre shift in STAR’s position, given that it had written to the TRAI saying that instead of telcos being paid for allowing Internet content (via Zero Rating), it should be telecom operators that pay content providers"/


See "Google joins Facebook in trying to prevent IAMAI from taking strong anti-Zero Rating stand" - here.

2000 Net Neutrality Complaints Filled

Brendan Sasso [pictured] reports to the National Journal that " In just the first month that net-neutrality regulations have been in effect, consumers have filed about 2,000 complaints to the Federal Communications Commission against Comcast, AT&T, and other Internet service providers, according to records obtained by National Journal.

And the depth of consumer outrage over unreliable Internet service and high prices is undeniable. .. Many consumers complained about data caps .. a consumer stopped watching Netflix and Hulu because of the "ridiculous" data caps

The FCC estimated the total number of informal complaints filed in the first month of the new regulations and provided copies of 50 of those complaints to National Journal as an initial response to a request submitted under the Freedom of Information Act. Public comments on proceedings and formal complaints are available on the FCC's website, but the agency does not routinely make informal consumer complaints available".

See "Thousands Beg FCC for Net Neutrality Crackdown" - here.

AT&T Agreed to Prevent Discrimination Against Online Video Competition

More than a year after Netflix said it will discuss an agreement with AT&T, this seems to be no longer necessary (see "Netflix: First we take Comcast, then we take AT&T and Verizon; How Much it Costs?" - here).

Marguerite Reardon (pictured) reports to CNet that "To win regulatory approval for its $49 billion bid to buy satellite TV provider DirecTV, AT&T has agreed to stricter Net neutrality rules and a promise to expand its fiber-optic-based broadband network to more customers.

..Details of the conditions have not been released. But in a statement, Wheeler said that "the conditions will build on the Open Internet Order already in effect." Specifically, AT&T has agreed to prevent discrimination against online video competition by agreeing not to "exclude affiliated video services and content from data caps on its fixed broadband connections." In other words, if AT&T imposes a data cap, it's not allowed to exclude its own content from these caps while other services are counted in the cap.

To ensure that AT&T is not discriminating against other services like Netflix, which offer similar streaming video service over broadband networks, the company has agreed to submit to the FCC all "completed interconnection agreements." These agreements are commercial arrangements between companies that exchange Internet traffic. Netflix has complained publicly that other broadband providers, such as Comcast and Verizon, have forced it to pay fees to deliver its streaming video service to consumers. In the current Net neutrality order, the FCC for the first time said it would examine these deals on a case-by-case basis if complaints are filed"

See "AT&T agrees to stricter Net neutrality rules to get its DirecTV deal approved" - here.

India Planned Net Neutrality Laws

 
Following the US and EU (here), India is also about to get its version of Net Neutrality. 

Mohul Ghosh [pictured] reports to Trak.in that "The 6 member standing committee, which was formed by the Government to look into the raging Net Neutrality issue may finally announce their consensus soon. As per reports, they have received recommendations from Department of Telecom, and they are in the final stages now."

• One of the biggest positive developments to have come out from this standing committee is that, DoT has finally realized that Zero Rating plans initiated by Airtel [see "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here], and Internet.org project by Facebook, are against the principles of net neutrality.
   
• Content and application providers cannot be permitted to act as gatekeepers and use network operations to extract value, even if it is for an ostensible public purpose. Collaborations between TSPs (telecom service providers) and content providers that enable such gate keeping role to be played by any entity should be actively discouraged.
   
• The committee, it seems, agrees with the suggestions of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) that local voice based services by OTTs need regulation, so that they are in par with those telecom companies which are operating in India. [see "Indian MNOs to Surcharge VoIP Traffic" - here].
  
  As per another report by Economic Times: “The committee favors regulatory oversight on the communication service providers. The committee believes that for (other) OTT application services (including those offering messaging and international voice calls), there is no case for prescribing regulatory oversight similar to communication services.”

See "Net Neutrality In India: DoT Opposes Zero Rating Plans But Suggests Regulation of Local Voice Call Service By OTTs" - here.

The EU "Enshrines Net Neutrality’s no Blocking or Throttling Rules"

The EU published a document presenting the agreement reached over Net Neutrality:

"The rules enshrine the principle of net neutrality into EU law: no blocking or throttling of online content, applications and services. It means that there will be truly common EU-wide Internet rules, contributing to a single market and reversing current fragmentation.

The basics:

• Every European must be able to have access to the open Internet and all content and service providers must be able to provide their services via a high-quality open Internet.
   
• All traffic will be treated equally. This means, for example, that there can be no paid prioritisation of traffic in the Internet access service. At the same time, equal treatment allows reasonable day-to-day traffic management according to justified technical requirements, and which must be independent of the origin or destination of the traffic". 

Yet,

• "The rules also enable continued network and service innovation by defining the principles underpinning the relationship between Internet access services and innovative services with specific quality requirements .. These are services like IPTV, high-definition videoconferencing or healthcare services like telesurgery"

However,

• Are we not promoting a two-tier Internet? No
   
• Zero rating ..  we have to make sure that commercial practices benefit users and do not in practice lead to situations where end-users' choice is significantly reduced. Regulatory authorities will therefore have to monitor and ensure compliance with the rules

See "Roaming charges and open Internet: questions and answers" - here.

Sprint's Congestion Management "relies on the radio scheduling software provided by Sprint’s hardware vendors"

Back in April '14, Sprint said that "To more fairly allocate network resources in times of congestion, customers falling within the top 5% of data users may be prioritized below other customers" (see "Sprint's Reasonable Network Management Practices - Fairness, Limit top 5%, Video Optimization" - here). 

It turns out that now, with the FCC' New Net Neutrality rules becoming effective, this is no longer necessary! (or fines like AT&T $100M [here] may cause more damage) - and now the Sprint congestion management "relies on Sprint’s hardware vendors".  

Lance Whitney reports to CNET that "Sprint has stopped its data-throttling policy now that new Net neutrality rules are in place, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

.. Sprint acknowledged the halt to its data throttling in a statement sent to CNET:

'For less than a year, Sprint used a network management practice that applied only at the level of individual congested cell sites, and only for as long as congestion existed. At such sites, we temporarily allocated resources away from the top 5 percent of heaviest users and to the 95 percent of users with normal usage, to try to allocate the effects of congestion more fairly. Once congestion at the site passed, the limitation automatically ended. Upon review, and to ensure that our practices are consistent with the FCC's net neutrality rules, we determined that the network management technique was not needed to ensure a quality experience for the majority of customers'".

Sprint's updated "Open Internet Information" page (here) says: "Sprint employs a holistic approach to managing congestion on its data network. Sprint’s first goal is to avoid congestion altogether by directing traffic to the best available spectrum resources and cell sites. Sprint also attempts to avoid congestion by managing tonnage on its network. Finally, when congestion does occur, meaning that the demand on a particular sector temporarily exceeds the ability of that sector to meet the demand, Sprint relies on the radio scheduling software provided by Sprint’s hardware vendors to allocate resources to user" 

See "Sprint stops data throttling in wake of new Net neutrality rules" - here.

Vodafone India: "We are Pro-Net Neutrality"; Waiting for the Rules

 
Pankaj Doval, reports to The Times of India that "Vodafone, India's second-biggest mobile operator [see chart below for March 2015 data], has refused to follow Bharti Airtel in launching a zero-rating platform [see "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here] , the decision coming at a time when telecom regulator Trai and the Department of Telecom (DoT) are looking into the entire gamut of issues related to net neutrality.

Sunil Sood, [pictured] , CEO, Vodafone India said: "We are waiting for the rules .. Vodafone is a supporter of net neutrality and does not believe in "blocking" or "throttling" the internet .. We are pro-net neutrality... we do not block the internet or direct the internet." 

Asked to comment on the criticism of Airtel Zero plan, he said, "I believe it's a trivial matter. It was just a price plan .. applications offering voice communication facility — such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber — should follow the same regulations as mobile operators"  [see "Indian MNOs to Surcharge VoIP Traffic" - here and "Airtel wont Surcharge VoIP; TRAI: "not in accordance with net neutrality, it was not illegal" - here].

See "Vodafone won’t toe zero-rating plan of Airtel" - here.

AT&T: Net Neutrality Rules "are subject to modification"

So, the FCC's "Separating Fact from Fiction" statement saying that "The Order doesn't reduce broadband investment"  (see FCC's Net Neutrality: No Price Regulation; Won’t Reduce Investments - here) was correct, at least for AT&T - but probably because of other reasons.

Matthew J. Belvedere reports to CNBC that "AT&T chief Randall Stephenson [pictured] said Monday the new FCC net-neutrality rules will be changed by the courts or Congress. Under this operating principle, he said the company is moving forward with $18 billion of broadband investments.

"We have seen the way the rules came out, ... and as we read those rules we do believe they are subject to modification by the courts" or by Congress, Stephenson said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" 

Related posts:

• ISPs Sue FCC Against New Net Neutrality - here
• FCC: "No blocking, no throttling, no paid prioritization"  - here

"So we've said we're going to invest around $18 billion this year. That will allow us to deploy a wireless broadband solution to 13 million homes around the U.S.," he said. "That compares to about $22 billion last year."

If you don't see the video below, try here

See "Why net rules no longer an investment barrier: AT&T" - here.

[Infonetics]: Gradual Transition to NFV-Based DPI; Allot and Sandvine Lead the Market

A new report by Shira Levine, research director for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research, forecasts that the "..market for deep packet inspection (DPI) solutions deployed as a virtual network function (VNF) will grow at a 66 percent compound annual growth rate from 2014 to 2019

.. we are seeing trial activity and limited commercial deployments. Operators are likely to deploy virtualized DPI incrementally, leveraging it to support separate lines of business such as M2M and MVNO, and gradually expanding those engagements over time as they become more confident about the technology”

Related posts on the DPI vendors NFV activity: Sandvine, Procera, Allot  Qosmos,

Other highlights:

• The FCC has released its net neutrality rules in the US, but the issue is far from resolved and court challenges are underway; regulations in Western Europe are under reevaluation as well and the topic is rearing its head in emerging markets
   
• The focus of the deep packet inspection market is shifting toward use cases such as video optimization, granular charging, network security and content connectivity
   
• In machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, DPI technology is being used to enable better identification of traffic generated by connected devices and mitigate its impact on the network
   
• Sandvine and Allot are neck-and-neck in the race for the DPI market share lead, followed by Cisco and Procera

See "Virtualized Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to Grow at 66 Percent CAGR Through 2019" - here.

Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral

Last week Bharti Airtel announced the "launch of ‘Airtel Zero’ – an open marketing platform that will allow customers to access mobile applications at zero data charges. Akin to the established concept of toll-free voice calling, ‘Airtel Zero’ will allow everyone from big marketers to small-time application developers to make parts or their entire mobile app free for customers – thus reviving interest of dormant customers, attracting new potential users and increasing retention. 

The platform will be a big win for customers as it will allow them to access their favourite mobile applications at no data charges, and also encourage them to try out new applications .. We invite all application developers to register their interest in ‘Airtel Zero’ and see the compelling reach it can deliver to Airtel’s 200 million plus customers across India".

The new service raised Net Neutrality concerns in India. The Hindu reports (see "Net neutrality: Airtel defends data pricing" - here) that Bharti Airtel chief for strategy Shyam Mardikar [pictured] said that "an operator has a right to maximise its revenue from customers .. stating that the Internet is neutral and will continue to be so ..we are confusing here is the concept of service neutrality to net neutrality"

"How will ‘Airtel Zero’ work?

1. Mobile app makers register with ‘Airtel Zero’ to give customers toll-free access to their apps
2. Airtel informs customers about these toll-free apps
3. Customers download and access these apps at zero data charges – and enjoy their favorite online tasks (e.g. entertainment, shopping) for free – even at zero mobile balance"

See "Airtel launches ‘Airtel Zero’: A win-win platform for customers and marketers" - here.

Saisei Helps SPs Conform to Net Neutrality

DPI vendors are offering fairness-based traffic shaping solutions for more than 15 years now (such as Fair Use Management by Allot, Fair Use Policy by Sandvine and "Procera Networks and Openet Partnership Delivers Advanced Fair Usage to APAC" - here).

These solution support throughput of  hundreds of Gbps in an appliance or using a virtual s/w deployment (Sandvine, Procera, Allot), but one should never skip a good marketing opportunity - such as the anticipated (US-centric) new Net Neutrality rules.

And indeed - Saisei announced "Net-Neutrality-in-a-Virtual-Box, a simplified version of its powerful FlowCommand™ Network Performance Enforcement (NPE) software, that is specifically targeted at solving the network issues relating to the pending fair Internet usage mandate stemming from recent US FCC recommendations as well as growing enterprise network congestion.

Saisei’s Net-Neutrality-in-a-Virtual-Box comes preconfigured with Saisei’s unique “Host Equalization” enabled on start up. Using Host Equalization in-line, the Saisei solution automatically identifies, monitors and controls every single flow on a critical broadband link – up to millions of concurrent data, voice and video sessions – in real time without any impact on network performance.

Host Equalization gives every host – user – on a link exactly the same percentage of the available bandwidth that every other user has, regardless of what application(s) they may be running. Aggressive applications, including peer-to-peer apps like BitTorrent, high volumes of YouTube traffic or file transfers, that used to grab huge percentages of link bandwidth and crash other users, will now get the same percentage of a link’s bandwidth as every other user on the network.

Net-Neutrality-in-a-Virtual-Box can be deployed either as a VM under Hypervisor – VMware or KVM – control or, for customers preferring a traditional hardware solution, on Saisei-certified bare-metal x86 server cores as a bump-in-the-wire on routed IP links. Currently, links up to 10G are supported, with higher bandwidth solutions now under development".

See "Net-Neutrality-in-a-Virtual-BoxTM from Saisei Instantly Enforces Equal Access for all Broadband Network Users at the Click of a Button Regardless of Network Load" - here.

ISPs Sue FCC Against New Net Neutrality

Brendan Sasso [pictured] reports to the NationalJournal that "Telecom companies filed a pair of lawsuits Monday in an attempt to reverse the Federal Communications Commission's new net neutrality rules. The suits are expected to be the opening shots in a long legal war against the controversial regulations .. The suits claim the rules are outside the FCC's authority, violate administrative law, and infringe on the companies' constitutional rights:

• USTelecom, which represents AT&T, Verizon, and other companies, filed its lawsuit [see below] in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
  See also: "USTelecom Files Protective Petition for Review" - here - "USTelecom strongly supports open Internet rules, but disagrees with the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to reclassify broadband Internet providers as common carriers in the order adopted March 12".
   
• Alamo Broadband, a small Texas-based wireless Internet provider, filed its suit in the U.S. appeals court based in New Orleans.

See "Internet Providers Sue to Kill Net Neutrality" - here.

FCC's Net Neutrality: No Price Regulation; Won’t Reduce Investments

The FCC has released the full text of the new Net Neutrality order, a 400 pages document (here) - and a press release that is "Separating Fact from Fiction".

"The Order uses every tool in the Commission’s toolbox to make sure the Internet stays fair, fast and open for all Americans, while ensuring investment and innovation can flourish. We encourage the public to read the Order, which reflects the input of millions of Americans and allows everyone to separate myths from fact, such as: [Partial list]

• Myth: The FCC plans to set broadband rates and regulate retail prices in response to consumer complaints.
• Fact: The Order doesn’t regulate retail broadband rates.
   
• Myth: This will increase consumers’ broadband bills and/or raise taxes. 
• Fact: The Order doesn’t impose new taxes or fees or otherwise increase prices.
   
• Myth: This is a plan to regulate the Internet and let the government take over the Internet.
• Fact: The Order doesn’t regulate Internet content, applications or services or how the Internet operates, its routing or its addressing.
   
• Myth: This proposal means the FCC will get to decide which service plan you can choose.
• Fact: The Order doesn’t limit consumers’ choices or ban broadband data plans.
   
• Myth: This will stifle innovation in new areas of Internet connectivity like connected cars or tele-health.
• Fact: The Order doesn’t regulate the class of IP-based services that do not connect to the public Internet.
   
• Myth: This will lead to slower broadband speeds and reduced investment in broadband deployment.
• Fact: The Order doesn’t reduce broadband investment or slow broadband speeds.
   
• Myth: The new transparency rules add up to a new form of regulation.
• Fact: Clear disclosure requirements benefit both consumers and industry".
   

See "FCC Open Internet Order - Separating Fact From Fiction" - here.

Canada: Operators Directed to Stop Zero-Rate Video

While zero-rated data gains popularity in some markets (Colombia, Pakistan, Zambia), the Canadian regulator, CRTC, directed two MNOs, Bell Mobility and Videotron to eliminate this "unlawful practice", which they categorize as "application-specific economic Internet Traffic Management Practice (ITMP)".

CRTC announced that "As Canadians turn more and more to the Internet for viewing content, it is important to make sure that these new platforms are made available to Canadians in a fair and open manner. In this regard, the CRTC issued a decision today that reinforces its commitment to an open Internet. 

The CRTC has directed Bell Mobility and Vidéotron to stop giving their mobile television services, Bell Mobile TV and illico.tv, an unfair advantage in the marketplace, to the disadvantage of other Internet content. These companies exempted their own mobile television services from their standard monthly data charges. Content from other websites or apps, on the other hand, counted against the customer’s data cap.

• Bell Mobility must eliminate this unlawful practice by April 29, 2015.
   
• For its part, Vidéotron indicated that it planned to withdraw its illico.tv app for BlackBerry and Android devices by the end 2014. Vidéotron must confirm by March 31, 2015 that this app has been withdrawn and ensure that any new mobile TV service it offers does not give it an unfair preference or advantage over similar services.

See "CRTC continues to set the course for the future of television with Let's Talk TV decisions" - here and a detailed discussion "Broadcasting and Telecom Decision CRTC 2015-26" - here.  

[UK]:"Unlike some countries", All ISPs Voluntary Signed for the Net Neutrality Code

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) announced that "all of the UK’s leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have now signed up to a voluntary Code of  Practice in support of the Open Internet.

The Open Internet Code [here] was launched in 2012, building on previous work on the transparency of traffic management. EE, Virgin Media and Vodafone have recently signed up to the Open Internet Code, meaning that all major ISPs, operating across both fixed and mobile networks, are now signatories.

Matthew Evans [pictured], CEO of the BSG which facilitated the code, said: “Unlike some countries where net neutrality has become a controversial topic for discussion, the UK benefits from a fiercely competitive market and high levels of transparency – which together offer the best assurance of an Open Internet. The Code now provides an even stronger and more effective foundation, whilst also allowing for an environment where new business models for internetbased services which benefit consumer choice can thrive.”

The signatories of the code are: BT, BSkyB, EE, KCOM, giffgaff, O2, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone. 

By agreeing to the code, they confirm that they will:

1. Ensure that full and open internet access products, with no blocked services, will be the norm within their portfolio of products.
    
2. Provide greater transparency in instances where certain classes of legal content,applications and/or services are unavailable on a product. These products will not be marketed as “internet access” and signatories will be obliged to ensure that any restrictions are clearly communicated to consumers.
    
3. Not target and degrade the content or applications of specific providers.Content providers are able to raise potential cases of targeted and negative discrimination with ISPs. If they are not satisfactorily resolved, these issues will be lodged with the BSG  who will share them with Ofcom and government. This initiative, which the BSG was asked to undertake on behalf of the Government, builds on the transparency code of practice published in 2011 which ensures that clear, understandable and comparable information on traffic management practices is available to consumers.

See "Remaining ISPs commit to the UK’s Open Internet Code" - here.