EU Governments to Move on Net Neutrality, Jettison Spectrum Management Reform
EU governments are moving forward on a net neutrality policy but ditching efforts to harmonize some aspects of spectrum management as part of the European Commission-proposed "connected continent" telecom reform package, an EU diplomatic source said Wednesday. A working party of the Telecom Council of national ministers met Tuesday and agreed to a principles- -- rather than rules- -- based approach to net neutrality, the person said. The EU Latvian Presidency aims to distribute new text Jan. 20, with talks to begin Jan. 27, she said.
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Latvia had laid out a road map for Tuesday's working party meeting in a Jan. 7 memo to delegates. The presidency said it intended to "make substantial progress at Working Party level until the end of February" and to continue examining provisions on net neutrality and roaming, with a view to achieving Telecom Council agreement, to negotiate with the European Parliament "in due time." The memo proposed dropping the spectrum management provisions, given the "observed lack of support" from governments in earlier meetings. The talks will also include another controversial topic -- mobile roaming.
Regarding net neutrality, the memo said the presidency would continue with a principles-based approach, which garnered broad support from the November Telecom Council meeting. It proposed holding an article-by-article debate of a text based on language from the Italian presidency, whose term ended Dec. 31, and on contributions from national governments. But the diplomatic source said the discussion will center on new text, not Italy's proposal.
"The drive is for net neutrality to be watered down to something broadly meaningless," European Digital Rights Executive Director Joe McNamee said. It likely also will contain an explicit provision to allow Internet access providers to block and filter content for "ad hoc, arbitrary law enforcement purposes, in clear breach of European law," he told us.
Many experts and policymakers recognize that a light-touch approach on net neutrality, based on clear, simple principles, would be better suited to protecting end users without stifling innovation and investments, said Alessandro Gropelli, European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association communications and media head. "A no-blocking, no-throttling principle could be included," but new rules shouldn't mandate how engineers manage networks or restrict innovative offers and services, he told us. On spectrum, ETNO believes harmonization measures are a fundamental part of the connected continent package, and agrees with the EC that "further actions to improve the way in which spectrum is managed across Europe are urgent," he added.