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Friday, May 27, 2011

Netherlands' new net neutrality law: not as 'meh' as Kroes?

The increasing calls for recognition of connectivity to the Internet as a basic human right (Tim Berners Lee is provocative here) may only have been solidified in Finland and Chile, but Netherlands has been provoked by KPN's rather crass declaration of intent to block. Dutch friends tell me it's more than likely that a thus-far vaguely drawn Bill on Net Neutrality will be passed soon, which will prevent blocking and selective service pricing. It is unclear whether it will introduce FRAND on faster services.
This is very welcome - and adds a lot of substance to today's European Telecoms Council, which has to discuss the Commission's Grey Paper on the subject. How will Dutch Commissioner Kroes react to the Netherlands' decision to take net neutrality, and implementation of the Directives (Wednesday should have been implementation deadline) seriously?
Elsewhere, France Telecom has decided that Google should pay for exclusivity on 'fast lanes'....whether it agrees is less clear!

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