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Digital Communities
Industry Members
Net Neutrality: The Dutch Move Quickly
July 8, 2011 By Indrajit Basu
While net neutrality in the U.S. is turning into a political potboiler with net neutrality regulations getting stuck in the vetting process, The Netherlands has quietly shown that it is legally possible to separate the interests of broadband network providers and consumers.
Netherlands also established that the Internet is most efficient and useful to the public when it is focused on multiple users instead of a few centralized powers.
Dutch lawmakers on June 22 passed a network neutrality law, which prohibited mobile data carriers from blocking or charging extra money to users trying to make voice calls over Skype or other IP-based voice applications.
The law, passed by the Dutch Parliament's lower house -- which means the Dutch Senate (Eerste Kamer) has to ratify it before turning it into a law; but that’s a formality say some -- will prevent operators including KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile from imposing extra fees for free services like Skype.
The legislation also requires online advertisers and websites to get "explicit consumer consent" before installing cookies onto users' computers and devices.
But while consumer advocates praised the legislation, comparing it to freedom of speech and press, the incumbent -- KPN -- alleges that the Parliament adopted the law without enough discussion on its implications.
The move is sensational. For one, The Netherlands will be the first country in the European Union to adopt net neutrality laws and only the second country in the entire world, as Chile approved a net neutrality law last year that into effect in May.
But more importantly, The Netherlands became the first country to come cracking down as soon as it realized that the absence of a neutrality law was threatening the use of its Internet.
Reacting to poor first-quarter earnings driven by its customers flocking to a free messaging service called "WhatsApp," KPN, the largest and the most powerful Dutch incumbent slapped extra charges for using Skype and WhatsApp.
The move backfired spectacularly.
Customers were not only outraged, but many also wondered how KPN even knew which applications they were using on their phones.
The Dutch bill took shape in just two months as politicians reacted swiftly to that public outcry over telecom KPN's pricing policies.
FCC Approves Controversial Neutrality Rules in U.S.
Net neutrality has always been controversial around the world, and in the U.S. the issue is increasingly raising a firestorm.
The Federal Communications Commission approved net neutrality rules in December of last year that prohibited phone and cable companies from discriminating against or favoring Internet content and services. And the fight for Internet freedom quickly emerged as a political potboiler.
Spearheaded by Republican lawmakers opposing the FCC’s authority to formulate such a law, a group of U.S. politicians overturned the rules in February saying that the rules would stand in the way of innovation and kill jobs.
According to Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell there is a “better than average chance” that a D.C. coup will stay the FCC’s network neutrality rules.
The FCC has even announced recently that it was done with its vetting and now will hand the matter over to the Office of Management and Budget, which will also undertake vetting. This could mean that even if the court does not issue a stay, the regulations will not go into effect until October or November.
Even then, experts say, various groups and businesses will challenge them in the courts.
An International Issue
According to Door Ot van Daalen of Bits of Freedom, an Internet freedom and privacy group in Netherlands, the Dutch legislation thus is significant for drawing international attention to the issue of net neutrality
For, although net neutrality was mainly a U.S. issue until recently, developments in the U.S. have triggered a number of countries like the UK, Japan, Norway, and Canada and even India and China to shake out of a slumber. All these countries have either issued orders, or have triggered consultations, guidelines or reports addressing aspects of net neutrality.
According a Marl Del Bianco, a blogger in the European Internet domain, “A surprising feature of internationalization of net neutrality issue is the degree to which national regulators [of some countries] explicitly acknowledge that they are looking at what their colleagues in other countries are doing.”
He added that many more governments in the developing world have also started recognizing the key role that broadband networks play in development and innovation throughout all industry sectors.
“The Dutch move is a definite step forward in the debate that it is possible to draft a rule that gives sufficient freedom to providers to organize traffic in such a way that end users can use the internet freely. On the other hand, it also allows the providers to provide competing services,” says Door Ot van Daalen,
It could also shape the evolving global debate over net neutrality and push other countries to limit operators from acting as self-appointed toll collectors of the mobile internet, said other experts in the blogging community.
Technology may the one of the greatest enablers of good things in life, but even until recently, it was mainly a phenomenon that benefited the more resourceful section of the world. That's changing though. Thanks to its constant evolution in the last few years, technology, particularly digital technologies, have ceased to be the privilege of a select few. From a hungry child in Niger, to the downtrodden lavatory cleaner in India, to the lonely billionaire widower living in a swanky Manhattan apartment, digital technologies are radically changing the lives of all these days.
As an international correspondent for Digital Communities, I have covered the power that ICT wields, particularly over the inhabitants of the developing world. But often a 1200-word feature does not bring forth the magic of ICT fast enough. My endeavor in this space would be to do just that; highlight some notable ICT-related developments as fast as I can.
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