[Netherlands] T-Mobile Free Wi-Fi on Trains may Block YouTube

Here is how the "reasonable traffic management" exception to Net Neutrality looks like in real life.

While the Netherlands has a Net Neutrality law (see "Netherlands: Net Neutrality/DPI Restrictions Law Approved" - here), its railway service is allowed to block certain traffic on its free Wi-Fi service (operated by T-Mobile). I assume that if you still wish to watch YouTube you'll need to use paid mobile service.

24 Oranges reports that "The Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets has approved Dutch railways’ move to block YouTube and Spotify which use a lot of bandwidth in order to provide better quality Wi-Fi in some of their trains. Even though the Wi-Fi is free, the net neutrality law force ISPs and telecom operators to ensure access to all types of content, services or applications available on the network".

ACM explains (here, in Dutch) that "traffic that congest the netwrok is an exception to the Net Neutrality law"

See "Dutch railways leans on net neutrality law to block sites" - here.

[Research]: "Network neutrality enhances innovations by small content and application providers" and Good for Everybody Else

In 2012 the Netherlands was the first country in Europe to adopt a Net Neutrality law (see "Netherlands: Net Neutrality/DPI Restrictions Law Approved" -here). Recently, the Ministry of Economic Affairs commissioned a research by SEO Economic Research (affiliated to the University of Amsterdam), to examine the economics affects the law.

The research, by Viktória Kocsis [pictured] and Jarst Weda concluded that "Network neutrality enhances innovations by small content and application providers (CAPs), but it also provides benefits for large CAPs and internet service providers (ISPs). Network neutrality affects innovation incentives positively by effectively reducing market power of internet service providers and increasing connectivity between endusers". 

See "The innovation-enhancing effects of network neutrality" - here)

Dutch Party Calls to Legalize DDoS

Good news for the security companies. Info security reports that "Dutch opposition party D66 has called for the legalization of DDoS in its new election manifesto .. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks should be viewed as online public demonstrations, and as such should be regulated in the same basic manner as street demonstrations, says D66 campaign manager Kees Verhoeven .. D66 believes that online hacktivism is similar to on-street demonstrations and should be controlled in a similar manner: regulated, not banned. Under the proposals, hacktivists would need to give prior warning of their action to allow companies to take whatever defensive measures they choose. At the moment this often happens in general if not in detail: hacktivists will often pre-announce their targets if not necessarily the precise time of the attack".

"The move would make a formal distinction between disrupting the online service of a company, and breaking into the servers of that company – a distinction that is not generally held in most jurisdictions"

The party's site [here] clarifies that ".. For clarity. D66 is against shutting down illegal websites or servers through DDoS attacks. This works disruptive and could harm freedom of expression".

See "Legalize DDoS, says Dutch opposition party" - here 

Netherlands: Net Neutrality/DPI Restrictions Law Approved

   

Door Ot van Daalen reprots to Bits of Freedom (Dutch site) that "On 8 May 2012 The Netherlands adopted crucial legislation to safeguard an open and secure internet in The Netherlands. It is the first country in Europe to implement net neutrality in the law .. The net neutrality law prohibits internet providers from interfering with the traffic of their users. The law allows for traffic management in case of congestion and for network security, as long as these measures serve the interests of the internet user. A technical error in the law might still be corrected in a vote on 15 May".

"In addition, the law includes an anti-wiretapping provision, restricting internetproviders from using invasive wiretapping technologies, such as deep packet inspection (DPI). They may only do so under limited circumstances, or with explicit consent of the user, which the user may withdraw at any time".

This is a relatively quick reaction to the attempt of KPN to surcharge customers for using competitive voice and messaging applications (here).

See "Netherlands first country in Europe with net neutrality" - here. See also "Translations of key Dutch internet freedom provisions" - here.

[IHS] Net Neutrality is Still Here; Driven by Operators-OTT Conflict

   

A new report by Dexter Thillien (pictured), Senior Analyst, Telecoms, IHS Global Insight "looks at the topic of net neutrality as data traffic increases and regulators look to legislate on the issue".

The key findings are:

• With data traffic growing at a fast pace and increasing mobile broadband demand, the net-neutrality issue has taken centre stage
   
• Operators are looking to protect their investments and their bandwidth, while over-the-top (OTT) companies want to ensure that content won't be arbitrarily blocked
   
• Several countries and regions have consultations on the topic, but very few have binding net-neutrality legislation, with the US  [here] and the Netherlands  [here] the two pioneers in the field
   
• Net neutrality means different things to different players [here], with no two markets sharing the same definition. However, a common denominator exists based on transparency [EU - here ; UK - here; see also "Allot: 25% of MNOs Have a Transparency Issue with "Unlimited" Service Plans" - here] and fair traffic-management practices [here]
   
• The main issues remain whether the internet is a public good or a business, and whether there exists one or several internets
   
• Further differences exist in terms of whether to cover both fixed and mobile networks, as well as the role of piracy [here] and OTT players in the net-neutrality debate
   
• The US case study highlights that the middle ground pleases no-one, while the Dutch example highlights the risk of all-encompassing legislation
   
• Regulators have the arduous task of ensuring that there remains strong competition within a specific market, while at the same time ensuring that customers are well-served by their providers
   
• The battle between carriers and providers is set to continue, with carriers now offering their own internet services as they have a similar objective in maintaining a key relationship with the end user.

The paper, "Net Neutrality on the Radar", is available here (registration required) or by contacting the author (here).

See also "US Net Neutrality: Different Things to Different People; Lawsuits to Come" - here. 

US Net Neutrality: Different Things to Different People -> Lawsuits to Come

    

Dexter Thillen, Senior Analyst, IHS Global Insight article at RCRWireless says that "Net Neutrality becomes law [here], but lawsuits to come"

"The FCC’s rules point out three major areas of ensuring principles—transparency, no blocking and no unreasonable discrimination—but the issue is sometimes complicated by the use of different terms to define these principles, whether it is open, fair or neutral .. for example, Verizon, whose latest “network optimisation” programme [here] clearly follows the transparency principle—but it also blocks tethering applications on its LTE network despite the licence requirements calling for open access, showing that different interests can occur even within the same organisation"

"There still exists some role for regulators to ensure all services have fair and transparent access, but regulation will never satisfy all the different parties, as their diverging interests are too far apart, but as the Dutch case has proven, consumers might suffer from too draconian regulation as the introduction of the new ruled [here], where no content could be blocked by mobile operators, led to a sharp increase in data prices in the market."

See "Analyst Angle: Net neutrality becomes US law with lawsuits to come" - here.

Dutch Government: "the use of DPI remains within the limits of the law"

Telecompaper reports that "The Dutch ministry of economic affairs will not pursue the Deep Packet Inspection issue .. Minister Maxime Verhagen (pictured) told the Lower House of Parliament that providers are complying with the Telecommunications Act, the Privacy Protection Act (PDPA) and the Criminal Code. Regulator Opta and the Public Prosecutor have therefore concluded that the use of DPI remains within the limits of the law .. Authorities are still looking at DPI, as regards to the Telecommunications Act"

See "Dutch govt to not pursue DPI" - here.

This follows the previous story of KPN attempt to impose surcharges on the use of certain wireless applications (here), and the Net Neutrality law adopted in the Netherlands (here)

Netherlands Mobile Operators Abuse Privacy with DPI?

 

The story of DPI use in Netherlands by mobile operators is not over. No wonder why operators deploying DPI still want to stay anonymous.

What started as the intention of KPN to surcharge the use of certain data applications (here) using a DPI based system, and quickly turned the Netherlands to be the first European country adopting a Net Neutrality law (here), has taken a new angle.

OPTA, the local communications regulator, says that (I hope I am translating correctly)  "In Mid-2011 it was told that some mobile network providers employ techniques for deep analysis of data packets over their mobile network. These techniques, which are usually referred to as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), could infringe on the privacy of users of these networks". 

"OPTA has decided to do a "quick scan" among the four largest mobile network operators: KPN, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Tele2  .. OPTA found no evidence that the investigated operators read their subscribers emails, photos or contributions to social networks .. However, OPTA found that the four operators are aware of more information than the information intended for handling of traffic. .. It is possible the confidentiality of communications is at stake"

See "Voorlopige bevindingen OPTA over gebruik Deep Packet Inspection" - here.

Nice try, KPN - Netherlands First European Country to Adopt Net Neutrality

  

This was quick. Only two months after KPN announced it will surcharge the use of certain data application competing with its voice, SMS and video services (here) it became illegal to do so.

 

Brian O'Brien reports to the New York Times: "The Netherlands on Wednesday became the first country in Europe, and only the second in the world, to enshrine the concept of network neutrality into national law by banning its mobile telephone operators from blocking or charging consumers extra for using Internet-based communications services like Skype or WhatsApp, a free text service.

The measure, which was adopted with a broad majority in the lower house of the Dutch Parliament, the Tweede Kamer, will prevent KPN, the Dutch telecommunications market leader, and the Dutch units of Vodafone and T-Mobile, from blocking or charging for Internet services. Its sponsors said that the measure would pass a pro-forma review in the Dutch Senate without hitches".

See "Dutch Lawmakers Adopt Net Neutrality Law" - here.

Did KPN Go too Far? The Dutch Government Thinks it did

  

After KPN (and other operators in the Netherlands) announced its plans to surcharge the use of certain mobile applications such as Skype or Whatsup (here), the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation Maxime Verhagen announced that the "Dutch telecom law will be amended to ensure free access to the internet"

See "Garantie vrij internet in telecomwet" - here.

"Some providers of mobile internet had announced a levy for certain services. This is because of the necessary investments in the network and the declining of voice and SMS traffic. Minister Verhagen is not against charging by speed of the data traffic, but charging on certain services such as Skype or WhatsApp, however, go too far   .in few week the telecom law will be amended, to ensure Net Neutrality and ensue consumers that specific internet services will not be blocked or subject for extra charge".

Tele2 [Netherlands] Moves from FUP to UBB

 

Dutch mobile operators are very busy these days in trying to optimize their revenues. While KPN is said to be the first operator that will charge subscribers by application (here), Vodafone and T-Mobile maybe following (here), Tele2 decided to just join the industry mainstream and move to usage based billing.

The Wireless Federation site reports that "Tele2 Netherlands has renewed its mobile internet bundles, replacing the fair use policy with a price per MB. The bundles [see below] can be applied to any type of smartphone, although the operator has a separate rate for BlackBerry devices". Without a bundle, the cost is 1 Euro/MB, while a MB above quota is 5 Euro cents (for most plans).

See "Tele2 NL brings price per MB in place of mobile fair use policy" - here.
 
On March 31, 2011 Tele2 had 334K mobile subscribers in the Netherlands, a YoY decrease of 13%.

Vodafone and T-Mobile Netherlands also Control Applications' Use

 

The Dutch site nu.nl reports that it is not only KPN (see "KPN to Charge Extra for VoIP, Messaging and Streaming Video" - here) that is planning to charge extra for certain services - Vodafone and T-mobile have similar thoughts (or even actions).

See "Ook Vodafone blokkeert diensten" - here (Dutch ; the quotes below are translated using Google and Bing, to the best on my understanding)

"Vodafone blocks VoIP and sms over IP for sometime now, as it turns out after questions from nu.nl. For the basic subscriptions  - "call + sms + web" and a basic data bundle Smartphone Blox, Vodafone blocks VoIP. Customers that want to do use of these services should be paid extra .. In its terms document (here) of the "call + sms + web subscription" it states that the use of VoIP and SMSoIP is not allowed as well as "excessive" use of audio or video streaming is. WhatsApp is not covered by SMSoIP".

"T-Mobile would not comment .. but said in January 2011 that price differentiation is a way to manage the growing network traffic. "It is important that the quality of the network and the services offered thereon, safeguarded" said T-Mobile in January "One way to do it, is based on price". These statements are similar to KPN's recent announcement. However company spokesperson said that "T-Mobile does not mean that the measures are still being considered and whether a decision has been made".

See also " Vodafone Uses DPI and Policy Management to Improve QoE" - here.

Netherlands: DPI is Needed to Block Illegal Web Sites

    

The Future of Copyright web site reports that "The Dutch government is considering monitoring all internet traffic by means of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI). Thus stated State Secretary for Security and Justice Fred Teeven to the Dutch House of Representatives last Thursday."

See "UPDATE: Dutch government considers DPI on internet traffic" - here.

"According to the ministry, DPI brings the advantage of knowing where internet traffic is directed. This makes room for the possibility of blocking access to only the illegal parts of a website instead of blocking a whole domain [see why - here] which may contain both illegal and legal information"

See also "Web Filtering Study from Sprouts" - here.