French telecommunications regulator Arcep has published ten proposals addressing the internet and network neutrality, a culmination of work begun in September 2009. Since then the regulator has held some 50 hearings with outside parties, hosted an international conference and put a series of initial recommendations up for public consulation during the summer. The around 40 responses to the consultation helped Arcep fine tune its ten proposals. These aim to promote a lasting state of equilibrium, balance and quality for all networks, particularly the internet. They address potential threats to internet neutrality, rather than current malfunctions. The focus is now on implementing the recommendations and having them monitored by Arcep. The recommendations are in the following ten areas: Freedom and quality of internet access, non-descrimination between internet traffic streams, supervising internet traffic management mechanisms, managed services, increased transparency with respect to end-users, monitoring traffic management practices, monitoring the quality of internet access service, monitoring the data interconnection market, taking account of the role of information society service vendors in net neutrality, and increasing the neutrality of devices. The full document in French and a translation in English are available at Arcep's website.
