[governance] Blocking Of Internet Traffic Common In Europe – EU Report

[Riaz K Tayob]

[The Great Democratic Firewall... with the guarded insight that ACTA etc 
will be the guiding light to do something about this... the road to hell 
is paved...]

Blocking Of Internet Traffic Common In Europe – EU Report
Published on 14 March 2012 @ 12:11 pm



Intellectual Property Watch

By Maricel Estavillo for Intellectual Property Watch

Operators and internet service providers in Europe resort mostly to 
blocking voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) and peer-to-peer traffics 
to guard the security of and prevent congestion on their networks, 
according to a preliminary report from the European Union 
telecommunications regulator, the Body of European Regulators for 
Electronic Communications (BEREC).

The two measures are the most common internet traffic management 
practices deployed by providers of internet on both fixed and mobile 
networks. The report, the first of its kind from BEREC, was undertaken 
to identify emerging trends in traffic management practices and to find 
evidence of negative experiences from users and content and application 
providers resulting from the practices. The report was based on the 
responses from 400 operators surveyed.

The link to the report is here [pdf].

“When blocking/throttling is implemented in the network, it is typically 
done through deep packet inspection,” BEREC said in a press release. 
 From its survey, BEREC said it found operators resorting to a 
“wide-range of practices” and also using a “wide-range of implementation 
methods” to include active buffering and application-specific techniques.

Policy justifications given by respondents include security issues such 
as controlling spam and for them to prevent network congestion to allow 
them to offer specialised services such as internet telephony or TV.

The preliminary report was submitted by BEREC to the European Commission 
on 6 March. The regulatory body will publish the full report in the 
second quarter of the year.

Paris-based advocacy group La Quadrature du Net said in a press release 
that the findings in the report confirm the complaints against net 
restrictions that were submitted by some European customers on the 
RespectMyNet.eu platform. The group is now calling for an EU-wide 
internet neutrality law.

“Such widespread practices clearly show that EU Commissioner Neelie 
Kroes’ ‘laisser-faire’ approach on net neutrality allows operators to 
violate their users’ freedom of communication and privacy. She can no 
longer deny the evidence and must urgently propose a EU-wide law on Net 
Neutrality, so as to ensure that freedoms online but also innovation and 
competition in the digital economy are protected,” said La Quadrature 
spokesperson Jérémie Zimmermann.
Related Articles:

     EU Telecoms Said To Be Unfairly Restricting Internet Access
     Filtering and Blocking Closer To The Core Of The Internet?
     Council Of Europe Sees Human Rights Concerns In Internet Restrictions



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