Internet ‘Constitution’ Called Needed for Net Neutrality
BRUSSELS -- Net neutrality should be codified in a “constitution of the Internet” to discourage attempts to change the Net’s architecture, a panelist said Thurs. at a conference here of the Progress & Freedom Foundation and the Centre for European Policy Studies. It’s crucial to maintain separation of the Internet’s 3 layers -- infrastructure, applications and content, said Bernard Benhamou of the Political Sciences Institute in Paris. Scott Wallsten, PFF communications policy dir., said that could block innovation.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Europe’s competitive landscape differs significantly from the U.S.’s, but that can change, Benhamou said. It’s important to protect the Internet by keeping services and structures separate, he said. Europe, and particularly France, took the lead at the World Summit on the Information Society in seeking to protect the Internet principles of end- to-end connectivity and separation of layers. “The devil we know is the less evil solution,” he said.
But Wallsten said mandatory neutrality amounts to price regulation. Those advocating such a rule should ask what market failure it corrects, he said. Net neutrality backers also worry about service degradation by network providers, but they have no incentive to discriminate against content that will spur uptake of their services, Wallsten said. And no one knows what the optimal pricing for faster or better- quality service should be, he said.
It’s not clear whether or how prices would change if broadband providers charge content providers for access, said Wallsten. And full separation of Internet infrastructure from services overlooks market-based competition and could lead to undesirable outcomes.
The European net neutrality debate is “still rather confused,” said Information Society Dir.-Gen. Fabio Colasanti. The EC contends that existing rules let regulators tackle any ill-effects of discrimination by telcos, he said.
Net neutrality is a subtler concept in Europe than in the U.S., said Tom Kiedrowski, U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom) policy mgr.-strategic & market development. In Europe, providers always have had to pay to use networks, so the idea that the pipes are free is wrong, he said. Moreover, prioritized traffic lets service providers offer consumers tailored services. Net neutrality is best considered a continuum, he said. Ofcom prefers not to dictate a new market structure, but if net neutrality problems arise, it has the tools to deal with them, including price caps or ordering disclosure to consumers about blocked or prioritized websites, Kiedrowski said.
FTC Comr. William Kovacic said he sees a “mismatch” between policy-making institutions and their output. Broadband-driven innovation is pressing policymakers to get up to speed on new technologies, he said. As a result, there’s a tendency toward “crisis-driven” policy adopted without discussion or reflection. -- Dugie Standeford
PFF Conference Notebook…
National telecom regulatory authorities will respond Tues. to an EC proposal for a more “federalized” regulatory system, Information Society Dir.-Gen. Fabio Colasanti said Thurs. at the PFF/CEPS conference in Brussels. Support last week from the European Regulators Group for an independent network of national agencies shows that agencies see the need for an EU-level body handling pan-European matters like assigning frequencies for mobile phones in airplanes, he said. But they're split on whether the body should be responsible for ensuring consistent application of EU telecom laws, he said; some favor it, others fear loss of autonomy. But agencies clearly offered more cooperation with the EC, Colasanti said. They see a problem and the need to deal with it, he said.