Europe's two biggest telecom companies (telcos) have called on regulators to be flexible in finalising rules to protect the openness of the internet, to allow them to give priority to certain kinds of data traffic on their networks.
They made the disclosure in Barcelona, Spain, during the ongoing Mobile World Congress, according to report from Reuters.
Chief Executive Officers of Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that network operators needed to give special treatment to data for new services like connected cars and smart electricity metres to ensure that they functioned properly.
In both the United States and Europe, regulators are forming policies on how to protect "net neutrality", the concept that all traffic on the internet must be treated equally regardless of content or source.
The issue often pits providers of bandwidth-hungry internet services such as Netflix, Spotify and Google's YouTube against the telecoms and cable companies. Meanwhile, governments want to ensure that network owners do not become gate keepers thwarting start-ups or new services by imposing special charges for high volume traffic.
In Nigeria, telecoms operators are fully involved in providing internet services to customers, outside the core voice telephony that they were originally known for. The shift in service provision is not unconnected with the global shift from voice to data communication. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms industry regulator in Nigeria, is however on top of the regulatory process, and has recently restricted Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from fixing arbitrary prices that could outsmart their competitors.
Speaking on the European regulation, the Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Telekom, Tim Hoettges, said: "We favour net neutrality, but we need to be allowed to have quality classes to enable new services in the Internet of Things."
Under new rules passed last week by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), setting aside capacity for such specialised services, providing connectivity to a smart metre for example, will be permitted as long as they do not pose as disadvantage to normal internet services for homes and businesses.
However, the details are not all public since the FCC has not yet published the full text of its net neutrality rules.
Industry expects such specialised services could generate billions in additional revenue one day as everyday tasks are increasingly connected to the web.
In Europe negotiations are continuing between the European Parliament and member states over final net neutrality rules, which could be concluded later. The Parliament version contains specific measures aimed to prevent abuses of the exception for specialised services, but it is expected to be watered down, experts said.
Asked about the FCC's moves, Vodafone's Chief Executive Officer, Vittorio Colao, said: "We looked at it and there is enough room in the position for it to be acceptable or a non-acceptable one. We need to understand the implications."
He further said that in conversations with the head of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, he had been assured that the US policy would have room for telecoms providers to develop new services around connected objects.
Separate from the net neutrality debate, Deutsche Telekom boss, Hoettges also renewed a call for companies like Google and Facebook to be regulated since they offer communications services such as web-based texting and chats, much as telecoms operators do.
Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/european-telecos-call-for-neutral-regulation-of-internet/203317/
