Net neutrality / de la Raudière report
On Wednesday, April 13, two French Members of Parliament presented to the National Assembly the report, concluding their mission of information on Internet neutrality. This is likely to become a bill in December 2011.
This report, which defines the principle of neutrality as “the ability for Internet users to send and receive the content of their choice or use the services or run applications of their choice, to connect hardware and use the programs of their choice, as long as these do not harm the network, with a sufficient and non-discriminatory service, of transparent quality, and subject to the obligations imposed by judicial proceeding and the measures necessitated by reasons of security and situations of unpredictable congestion”, makes nine propositions on the following four major areas:
- "Establish neutrality of the Internet as a political objective": To give the authorities the ability to impose obligations in order to promote Internet neutrality.
- "Strictly supervise the obligations of Internet blocking": According to the report, it is necessary to prevent as much as possible the use by operators of the blocking measures, taking into account the negative effects that this may cause. Thus, the intervention of a judge should be required before any blocking by ISPs.
- "Protect and ensure the universal quality of the Internet": the term "Internet" should be reserved for offers that respect the principle of neutrality as mentioned above to facilitate transparency for the consumer. Thus, mobile operators will no longer offer "unlimited Internet packages" as Internet use will be capped.
- "Ensuring the perennial financing of the Internet": This provision would require operators to charge for data exchange when a customer uses the other's network. This is likely to prevent ISPs from returning to the quantitative model, where subscribers pay for a certain amount of data and do not have unlimited access. This aims at involving websites such as YouTube, Google, Facebook, etc in the financing of networks.
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Files:
Rapport_provisoire_relatif_a_la_neutralite_du_net_01.pdf
