Ericsson - Improve QoE by Radio Access and Transport Network Interaction

 
A new paper by Stefan Dahlfort [pictured], Shahryar Khan, Jonas Rosenberg, Anton Smith, Shuo Yang Y, Mats Forsman, and Tomas Thyni, all from Ericsson, presents a new concept for QoE Imprvement.

"The demand for mobile-broadband services is causing network congestion. While such congestion tends to be temporary, it has a significant impact on user satisfaction. By adopting a holistic approach to network architecture, one that enables the radio and transport domains to share information, proactive measures to avoid congestion can be put into place, increasing the number of users at or above the desired QoE level"

"Our concept for radio access and transport network interaction [RTI] is a two-step process that first attempts to proactively avoid congestion and then address any congestion issues that cannot be avoided. For example, if information about transport path congestion can be included in the handover decision, moving users to a cell with congested transport can be avoided. But to do this, the RAN needs to be transport aware and the transport network needs to be RAN aware"

See "Radio access and transport network interaction – a concept for improving QoE and resource utilization" - here (full article - here)

Nokia's Traffic Steering Solution Increases Capacity by 10%

Nokia Networks announced it has "solved the complexities of coordinating the dozens of load balancing and traffic steering features available in multi-technology, multi-layered and multi-vendor mobile broadband networks. The purpose of these features is to avoid network congestion by distributing the traffic across different radio network layers. 

The Nokia Traffic Steering Manager is the first all-inclusive solution to automatically direct traffic to the most effective radio network layer. This ensures more efficient use of existing infrastructure, that is, an operator can effectively increase the capacity in the network by 10%. The Traffic Steering Manager provides an easy, automated way of managing the multitude of load balancing features available in the networks today reducing related operational effort significantly, up to 70 %.

Nokia’s Traffic Steering Manager is a network-wide system that combines all radio technologies (2G, 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi; macro and small cells) as well as the core network to dynamically orchestrate the network capacity utilization. If the capacity limits are reached, value-based traffic steering, enabled by the Traffic Steering Manager, is vital to ensure the network is used according to business priorities .. On a typical mid-sized network with 32,000 3G and LTE cells, an operator can improve network efficiency, worth two million euros per annum

• Centralized solution coordinates a multitude of load balancing and traffic steering functionality in radio networks to use all the capacity available in multi-technology, multi-layer and multi-vendor heterogeneous networks (HetNets)
   
• Traffic is steered according to network conditions. Also other criteria like device capabilities and customer service level agreements (SLA) can be taken into account when planning efficient service delivery and network utilization

See "Nokia Traffic Steering Manager effectively increases network capacity by 10%" - here.

Huawei Launches a Congestion-Aware, High Throughput Router

Huawei announced recently the "release of the industry's first high throughput router (HTR) aimed at providing users with an unprecedented ultra-HD video experience. The HTR could sense congestion status in real-time, intelligently predict available bandwidth, automatically adjust network throughput, and provide differentiated service acceleration. HTR significantly improves effective E2E transmission bandwidth and minimizes the negative impact of packet loss and delay on video service quality, providing operators with a competitive solution for MBB 2K and FBB 4K video service development. Demonstrating Huawei's leading role and innovation capabilities in the IP field, the HTR is a major breakthrough for ultra-HD video service backhaul.

Huawei’s HTR provides 400G capacity and will support smooth evolution to 1T/2T in the future, making it an effective solution for MBB 2K and FBB 4K service backhaul. It includes a unique Smart Service Acceleration Engine (SSAE) that incorporates three key technologies: network status sensing, packet loss identification and packet recovery, and delay compensation. With these technologies, the HTR overcomes the three major problems that affect the 2K/4K service experience including slow start, image defects, and lag, to ensure a stable throughput and guarantee an optimal 2K/4K video service experience.

In addition, Huawei’s HTR provides differentiated service acceleration capabilities for different OTTs and users, helps operators to effectively integrate services and network resources, creates new business value for the Internet industry chain, and achieves a win-win-win situation for users, OTTs, and operators".

See "Huawei Releases Industry’s First High Throughput Router (HTR) for an Optimized Ultra-HD Video Experience" - here.

Flash Networks Accelerates Encrypted Traffic; Increases D/W Speed by 50%

Flash Networks announces the "..release of Harmony 7.5, its Mobile Internet Services Gateway. A key differentiator of this new version is the ability to accelerate and optimize encrypted data without violating user privacy. Based on operator trials, Flash Networks has successfully demonstrated the ability to self-detect congestion in real-time and increase download speeds by 50% for all types of traffic, including encrypted traffic. The system can also be deployed as a virtual network function (VNF) and can be integrated into software defined networks (SDN).

Flash Networks' Harmony 

..Harmony 7.5 includes smart optimization, which boosts downloads and browsing speeds for all networks, including 300 mbps LTE-A networks .. . Harmony 7.5 has been successfully used to optimize traffic in a live trial as part of an SDN topology, integrated into existing network functions and sharing the same hardware".

  

See "Flash Networks Announces New Congestion-Based Optimization and Acceleration for Encrypted Mobile Traffic" - here.

Sprint's Reasonable Network Management Practices - Fairness, Limit top 5%, Video Optimization

Tammy Parker reports to FierceWireless that "Sprint's pledge of unlimited data [see "Will New Competition Drive AT&T to Bring Back Unlimited Data?" - here and "Sprint CEO: 'we have no plans go to tiered data pricing'" - here] is looking increasingly less sustainable, as the carrier maneuvers to rein in network traffic generated by its heaviest data users and ensure quality of service for the majority of its customers. Postpaid as well as prepaid Sprint customers, including those on its Virgin Mobile USA and Boost Mobile sub-brands, have begun receiving notices alerting them to new data "prioritization management" the operator will employ as of next month to prevent network congestion .. Prioritization can include a reduction of throughput or speed for those targeted users connected to congested sites".

Sprint's "Open Internet Information" page (here) says that 

• Sprint uses various tools and techniques to manage its network .. Sprint's network management activities may include identifying spam and preventing its delivery to customers, detecting malicious Internet traffic and preventing the distribution of viruses or other harmful code or content, allocating spectrum and network resources amongst customers, devices, and price plans, and using other tools and techniques to deliver the best possible broadband Internet experience of Sprint's customers
   
• Network bandwidth isn't infinite. In times of network congestion, the network segment or sector impacted doesn't have enough bandwidth to fully serve all customers requesting it. The network is designed to dynamically allocate available bandwidth in a way that is fair to all users. The fairness algorithms below describe the approach. The resulting impact to the end-user experience is that the user may temporarily experience slower-than-normal data speeds until the congestion has passed.
   
• On the Sprint 3G (CDMA) and 4G LTE networks, Sprint uses a proportional fairness scheduler algorithm that allocates network resources based on radio frequency signal quality and other metrics. During times of congestion, the proportional fairness scheduler algorithm ensures no one user is deprived of network resources.
   
• On Sprint's 4G WIMAX network, Sprint may periodically measure a user's bandwidth usage on a specific network segment or sector, as compared to the overall bandwidth usage for all users on that segment or sector. At times when an individual user is consuming high amounts of bandwidth and at the same time the overall bandwidth is being used by all users on that network segment or sector at high levels, Sprint 4G customers may experience a temporary adjustment in available network resources until the conditions for network congestion have passed.

• Sprint currently employs prioritization to improve data experience for the vast majority of users on Sprint’s CDMA and LTE networks. The heaviest data users consume a disproportionate share of network resources and cause a negative user experience for the rest. 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 attempting to access network resources, resulting in a reduction of throughput or speed as compared to performance on non-congested sites .. in addition to the heavy user treatment outlined above, Sprint also reserves the right to alter the priority of other customers on specific devices or plans on the Sprint network. Customers on devices or plans subject to prioritization management may experience a reduction in throughput or speed
   
• Optimization is deployed for RTSP and HTTP video traffic and all HTTP web traffic [by Citrix/Bytemobile - here]. Video optimization uses four basic technologies [see "Sprint Migrates from a "Basket of Tools" to Consolidated Video Optimization Solutions" - here]:
    
• Video Delivery Synchronization: Delivers video "just in time" to the mobile device. Intent is to eliminate network waste associated with transmitting video that isn't watched.
   
• Quality Aware Transcoding: Matches video quality with network conditions in real time. Optimizes video for the bandwidth available to the user. Intent is to minimize or eliminate annoying video stalling. Similar in concept to the optimization techniques already employed by sites using adaptive streaming.
   
• Video Transcoding: Transcodes video with intent to optimize the video experience for the user while efficiently using network bandwidth. Provides for the elimination of video waste using techniques like replacing less efficient video codecs with more efficient ones. Optimizes video for the mobile device the customer is using.
   
• Intelligent Caching: Caches optimized video in the network with the intent of eliminating delay associated with internet video sites.
   
• Web optimization uses three basic technologies:
• Caching: Caches web pages to help avoid delays associated with retrieval of the same internet content multiple times.
   
• Text/Binary Compression: Lossless compression of data and binary files using standard compression techniques supported by HTTP-compliant browsers.
   
• Image Compression: JPEG and GIF compression designed to reduce the size of images while maintaining no user perceptible loss of quality.

See "Sprint slams on the brakes for top 5% of data users in congested areas" - here.

[Heavy Reading]: The Market for DPI and Policy Control is Saturated; Yet to Double by 2018

A new report on DPI and Policy Control by Graham Finnie [pictured], Chief Analyst, Heavy Reading, finds "a significant slowdown in growth, from a whopping 30 percent in 2012 to around 17 percent in 2013. A key factor: The initial market for policy servers and deep packet inspection (DPI) gear is pretty much saturated, at least in the wireless sector .. our forecast predicts. We expect the market to nearly double from $1.45 billion in 2013 to $2.8 billion in 2018, a CAGR of 13 percent -- still pretty respectable by the standard of the overall telecom market"
 

Opportunities:
  

".. there are many new use cases driving a second or third round of spending by telcos ... enable telcos to offer a wider range of service packages and options, such as packages built around specific applications, shared usage plans, temporary passes, and so on. Support for VoLTE, telco WiFi, end-user security, prioritization under congestion, M2M, and sponsored data are also emerging on wish lists .. The good news is we've clearly moved on from theory to practical implementation with some of these ideas, with both vendors and operators reporting a wider range of new packages actually being deployed, especially in emerging economies. Here, it's not unusual to see 20 or more plans, with Facebook-only, Google Zero, and daily data passes among the options"

Challenges:

The not-so-good news is that these plans require a different kind of business justification, based on new revenues rather than lower costs -- which is often harder to justify .. Vendors report long lead and deployment times, slowing revenue recognition .. In the longer term, meanwhile, the risks are primarily associated with the transition to virtualized networks, including networks based on SDN"

See "Policy Revenues Climbing, but Hazards Loom" - here.

IETF: Requirements for Congestion Control

An informational RFC by Randell Jesup [pictured], Mozilla "attempts to describe a set of requirements that can be used to evaluate other congestion control mechanisms in order to figure out their fitness for this purpose, and in particular to provide a set of possible requirements for proposals coming out of the RMCAT  [RTP Media Congestion Avoidance Techniques] Working Group".

Some of the requirements:

• The congestion control algorithm must attempt to provide as-low-as-possible-delay transit for real-time traffic while still providing a useful amount of bandwidth.
   
• The algorithm must be fair to other flows, both realtime flows (such as other instances of itself), and TCP flows, both long-lived and bursts such as the traffic generated by a typical web browsing session
   
• The algorithm should quickly adapt to initial network conditions at the start of a flow. This should occur both if the initial bandwidth is above or below the bottleneck bandwidth
   
• The algorithm should not require any special support from network elements 

See "Congestion Control Requirements For RMCAT" - here. 

EU: One Step Away from A Strong Net Neutrality Law

The EU voted for a new Net Neutrality law (for fixed and mobile services), that should end traffic blocking (here) or discrimination. However, there are some exceptions, including the ability to provide high-quality services. This is not final yet, and the law has to be approved by the leaders of the EU countries.

"Internet access providers would be barred from blocking or slowing down selected services for economic or other reasons by the latest draft EU “telecoms package” legislation voted by Parliament on Thursday .. MEPs want clear rules to prevent internet access providers from promoting some services at the expense of others".

See also:

• EU: Traffic Management, Pay for QoS - are all fine! - here
• EU Tells Telcos to Wake-up! - here.

"Internet access providers would still be able to offer specialized services of higher quality, such as video on demand and business-critical data-intensive “cloud” (data storage) applications, so long as these services are not supplied to "the detriment of the availability or quality of internet access services" offered to other companies or service suppliers

MEPs shortened the European Commission's list of “exceptional” cases in which internet access providers could still be entitled to block or slow down the internet. MEPs say these practices should be permitted only to enforce a court order, preserve network security or prevent temporary network congestion. If such "traffic management measures" are used, they must be "transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate" and "not be maintained longer than necessary", they add.

MEPs underline that internet access should be provided in accordance with the principle of "net neutrality", which means that all internet traffic is treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference, independently of its sender, recipient, type, content, device, service or application.
See "Ensure open access for internet service suppliers and ban roaming fees, say MEPs" - here.

[Survey] Policy Management Shifts From Congestion to Service Plan Management

A recent survey by Graham Finnie, Chief Analyst Heavy Reading (sponsored Volubill, based on responses from 81 individuals at 56 network operators across all regions and types of providers) finds that "network operators’ primary priority has shifted from managing network congestion to offering subscribers more control and higher quality of service (QoS) through enhanced mobile policy offerings, like LTE and self-care dashboards".

Key findings:  

• 75% of respondents consider introducing new services, price plans and options the primary purpose for policy management technologies in the next two years 
• 25% of respondents citing the management of network congestion as the priority
  
  The following percentage numbers refers to the network operators:
  
• Approximately 70%  currently enable or plan to enable users to monitor data volume usage via a policy-linked self-care app or dashboard
• 54% plan to allow customers to change plan options directly via their device. 
• Nearly 87% are deploying, or plan to deploy, LTE
• 43% are upgrading or adding capacity to existing policy platforms to accommodate LTE
• 52% expect to manage WiFi Offload using a policy solution
• 54% currently, or plan to, use policy control to give certain content or applications priority, and charge subscribers accordingly

See "Heavy Reading Research Reveals Quality of Service a Primary Goal for 75 Percent of Network Operators" - here

Time Warner Cable: Slow Internet is Normal - We don’t Throttle Traffic

 
Jeff Simmermon (pictured), Director Digital Communications, Time Warner Cable explains in a blog post why the Internet is sometimes slow. There are many reasons - but not the speculation "A small subset of our customers" that "seem to think we are intentionally degrading their service"

“We don’t throttle traffic”

".. We’ve invested billions of dollars to ensure that our networks deliver the best possible experience regardless of the source or nature of the traffic. However, the traffic only moves as fast as the weakest link. And when traffic travels across multiple networks, each with its own relationships, slowdowns and other problems can and do occur".

See "Explained: Why Internet Traffic Slows At Times" - here.

FCC Adds Spectrum for Gigabit Wi-Fi

Julius Genachowski (pictured). Chairman, FCC, says in a LinkedIn post - ".. Wi-Fi congestion is becoming a critical problem for consumers and innovators .. That’s why last week I announced that the FCC, in coordination with other federal agencies, is kicking off an effort to free up unlicensed spectrum for ultra-high-speed, high-capacity Wi-Fi, known as “Gigabit Wi-Fi” This action would increase speeds and alleviate Wi-Fi congestion at major hubs such as airports, convention centers and large conference gatherings .. This effort would also increase the speed and capacity for Wi-Fi in the home, where multiple users and devices – including those streaming HD video – are often on the network at the same time".

See "Boosting Wi-Fi Speed and Reducing Wi-Fi Congestion Key for Innovation & Consumers" - here.

Report: Data Caps Raise ISPs Profit Margins

  
Verizon's CFO already said, in public, that shared (and limited) data plans are "an optimal way for us to monetize increasing data usage" (here). A new report by New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute [OTI] agrees.

The report, by Hibah Hussain (pictured), Danielle Kehl, Benjamin Lennett and Patrick Lucey finds that ".. increasingly costly and restrictive data caps are serving little purpose other than to raise the already high profit margins of broadband providers .. Internet service providers argue data caps are necessary to manage growing traffic and maintain quality of service on their networks .. instead, they are the product of an uncompetitive broadband marketplace where providers use data restrictions to increase revenues and protect legacy services such as cable television from online competition".

"The technical rational for imposing monthly limits on all subscribers makes little sense when network congestion tends to occur at limited times of the day and in certain locations. In addition, maintaining quality of service does not require Internet service providers to charge users exorbitant overage fees rather than pursuing less costly and punitive measures, particularly as the costs for operating broadband networks continues to decline"

"In July 2011, Verizon Wireless announced that it would be introducing a tiered pricing system for mobile users that included data caps .. Since then, both Verizon and AT&T have reconfigured their data plans, simultaneously raising prices and data caps so that while users may be paying less per MB today than a year ago, they have to choose between a more expensive basic plan and incrementally higher tiers as well .. Both companies have also introduced family share plans for data—similar to plans that allow families to share minutes and text messages—in which users share a single data cap,but pay a fee for each mobile device connected to the plan. The results of this policy shift have been clear—the average revenue per user (ARPU) from monthly subscription wireless data plans has steadily increased since 2009, climbing at a higher rate than the ARPU for other metrics such as retail service and other postpaid fees. And the trend is likely to only increase as AT&T and Verizon push their new shared data plans, which offer additional opportunities to boost data ARPU".

 

See "NEW REPORT: Capping the Nation's Broadband Future" - here.

HP Big Data Solution Helps CSPs with Monetization and Congestion Management

HP announced ".. new solutions that help Communications Service Providers (CSPs)—or telcos—manage, understand and act on massive amounts of information (Big Data) to deliver services to subscribers and improve their satisfaction levels .. by leveraging analytics to gain real-time insight into subscriber usage patterns, preferences and interests, CSPs can capitalize on business opportunities and partner more effectively with these new providers"

  

"HP Telco Big Data and Analytics provide insight into real-time network conditions, so CSPs can enhance network utilization and address traffic congestion situations .. HP Telco Big Data and Analytics are available now worldwide".

The following offerings are included in the new portfolio: HP Smart Profile Server, HP Actionable Experience Management and HP Ad Experience Personalization.

See "New HP Solutions Help Telcos Leverage Big Data to Deliver New Subscriber Services" - here.

NI Announcements: Huawei uTraffic Locates Traffic Congestion Points

   

Huawei announced the release of "..uTraffic, a network traffic analysis system. Based on Huawei's industry-leading performance management platform, uTraffic enables carriers to analyze network traffic and flow and monitor the quality of network "pipes" .. uTraffic is a network traffic analysis system with a scalable distributed architecture. This system can display overlapping physical topologies, geographic information system (GIS) mapping, and network traffic. It can also locate traffic congestion points".

Unfortunately, I could not find additional information on the product, beyond the press release.

"By collecting and analyzing traffic, uTraffic can predict the traffic and the broadband utilization rate for the next one to three months, and forecast where the bottleneck in the "pipe" is likely to occur. uTraffic also supports network expansion. uTraffic uses the embedded probe technology, which can monitor traffic and "pipe" quality to an accuracy of 10-6, top in the industry. Huawei also leads the industry in achieving point-to-multipoint monitoring by extending the Y.1731 technology".

[Y.1731 specifies mechanisms required to operate and maintain the network and service aspects of ETH layer. It also specifies the Ethernet OAM frame formats and syntax and semantics of OAM frame fields. The OAM mechanisms as described in this Recommendation apply to both point-to-point ETH connections and multipoint ETH connectivity. The OAM mechanisms as described in this Recommendation are applicable to any environment independently of how the ETH layer is managed (e.g., using network management systems and/or operational support systems)].

See "Huawei Releases Industry-leading Network Traffic Analysis System—uTraffic" - here.

Telus Sees 2,700% Signaling Growth Y/Y

 
Perry Hoffman reports to Cartt.ca on the "'tsunami of traffic' resulting from very high levels of social media over wireless devices and the connectivity of an increasingly large number of those devices is forcing mobile operators to deal with growing congestion. This was one of the key messages from Eros Spadotto (pictured), executive vice-president of technology and operations at Telus during a keynote presentation to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) InternationalConference on Communications on Tuesday in Ottawa".
 
"The reality is that while our megabytes of traffic is increasing, the signaling from these devices is greatly overwhelming that. In fact, we can look at a period of time where our growth has been 100% year over year on payload, on how many megabytes, but our signaling has grown 2,700%".

"It’s not just about getting more spectrum .. it’s about making it useable by the operators so they can build faster networks to deal with the onslaught of richer, bandwidth intensive applications being used over increasingly sophisticated mobile devices".

At the end of Q2 2012, Telus had 7.4M wireless subscribers; 39% of its ARPU came from data services during Q2, compared to 33% on the same quarter the year before (see chart).

See "IEEE: Traffic tsunami causing congestion in wireless nets, says Telus' Spadotto" - here.

[Analysys Mason]: DPI and PCC Needed in the RAN

A new report by Patrick Kelly (pictured), Research Director, Analysys Mason, concludes that "IP and Ethernet technology provides networks with flexibility to scale up in order to support traffic growth as mobile operators deploy lower-cost IP-based radio access technology. Furthermore, growth in mobile data services has also put pressure on mobile operators to reduce their backhaul cost, and many mobile operators are dealing with the difficulty of assuring quality of service and keeping operational costs under control".

".. deep packet inspection probes in the radio access network working together with the policy charging and rules function helps regulate traffic coming through the backhaul network, enabling mobile operators to avoid network congestion problems"

See "MANAGING BACKHAUL TECHNOLOGIES WITH FEWER TOOLS AND TECHNICIANS WILL REDUCE TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP FOR OPERATORS, ANALYSYS MASON REPORTS" - here.

IETF: Draft for "Mobile Communication Congestion Exposure"

A new IETF draft for "Mobile Communication Congestion Exposure Scenario" was published (here), led by NEC, Ericsson and UC3M.

   

"This memo describes a mobile communications use case for congestion exposure (CONEX) with a particular focus on mobile communication networks such as 3GPP Evoled Packet System (EPS). The draft provides a brief overview of the architecture of these networks (both access and core networks), current QoS mechanisms and then discusses how congestion exposure concepts could be applied. Based on this, this memo suggests a set of requirements for CONEX mechanisms that particularly apply to mobile networks" 

   

"The CONEX congestion exposure mechanism is intended as a general technology that could be applied as a key element of congestion management solutions in a variety of use cases. The IETF CONEX WG will however work on a specific use case, where the end hosts and the network that contains the destination end host are CONEX-enabled but other networks need not be".

CONEX Use Cases in the Mobile Communication Scenario: 

• CONEX as a Basis for Traffic Management, 
• CONEX to Incentivize Scavenger Transports, 
• Accounting for Congestion Volume
• CONEX as a Form of Differential QoS

Openet Extends Policy Enforcement to the Device; Reduces Signaling Congestion

Openet announced the ".. The immediate availability of Openet Interaction Gateway, which enables operators to extend Policy and Charging Control (PCC) system capabilities to the device for improved customer experience and optimization of network resources".

"Openet Interaction Gateway provides for device-level policy enforcement, enabling optimized device and network  interaction for a more granular control of services. The Interaction Gateway, in conjunction with an interaction agent  installed on the users handset, enables operators to monitor and manage application behaviour, set application priorities and manage network access requested by ‘chatty apps’". 
 
I asked Shane O'Flynn, Openet's Global VP Engineering who is providing the above mentioned agents: "we do for certain use cases and we use third parties for others where specific data is required or their agent is already in place"

"Interaction Gateway provides the advantage of enabling on-device enforcement of policies to reduce signaling congestion. By optimizing the signaling created by “chatty” apps that constantly query the network for updates, mobile device battery life can improve by up to 50 percent, and mobile infrastructure resources such as DHCP IP address allocation and AAA capacity can be preserved. Customer experience then improves through more robust mobile connectivity and better device performance".

See "Openet Introduces Interaction Gateway" - here.

Mobixell: Video Optimization Myths

A webinar by Mobixell explains why and how MNOs should use video optimization.

Bottom line, according to Mobixell:

• Video optimization helps you serve more high-performance sessions to more concurrent users
• Targeted video optimization (device-, user-, content-, Network-, Congestion-Aware and Policy-driven) means better video performance
• Too much video optimization can harm user experience and even revenue
• Video optimization can defer CAPEX and does not have to be expensive
• Video Optimization is critical for creating new data service revenues

 

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.