[governance] Net neutrality on mobiles

[Ian Peter]

Hi Parminder,

Unfortunately Australia has already jumped ship on this too. It is common
practice for ISPs here (who have volume charging regimes) to create free
zones of their partner sites which do not attract volume charges and/or
traffic shaping when people exceed download limits. Nobody here seems to
want to pick this up as an issue. To me, this is a distortion of a free
market and an open Internet at the same time and should be attracting a lot
more attention.

The mobile world, as you mention, brings with it other distortions and
potential distortions (eg built in apps and interfaces)


I agree - we should discuss.


Ian Peter





> From: parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>
> Reply-To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>
> Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2010 08:51:02 +0530
> To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>, <ciresearchers at vancouvercommunity.net>
> Subject: [governance] Net neutrality on mobiles
> 
> Hi All
> 
> The biggest mobile operator in India, Airtel, is providing Facebook free
> of data download charges in India (apparently, only for 2 months). I
> understand this is happening in other countries too; i read about
> something similar in Russia.
> 
> I consider this as an outright violation of net neutrality (NN).
> 
> Since there are existing codes of conduct on NN in some countries like
> Norway and Brazil, I will like to know from those who know and
> understand these country specific arrangements well if such a thing as
> above will be considered a NN violation under these codes.
> 
> If indeed developing countries are to have any chance of being a part of
> shaping and governing the future of the Internet, we should start
> testing such cases as above with the telecom regulatory  authourities,
> and if needed with courts and anti-trust bodies.
> 
> Parminder
> 
> PS: See latest developments on NN debate in the US at
> 
> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/google-verizon-close-to-their-
> own-net-neutrality-deal.ars
> 
> 
> It appears that there is some move to treat wireless or mobile based
> Internet on a different level vis a vis NN than wired Internet.
> 
> As the largest market players - here, Verizon and Google - seek to
> arrive at a mutually convenient  arrangement, and the only other party
> to it is the US gov, itself representing very partisan, and largely
> dominant, interests, as far as the global public Internet is concerned,
> the real shape of global IG is quite evident. Where does the IGF, and
> indeed the IGC come into this may be a question that we need to ponder
> upon.
> 
> 
> 
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