German regulator orders Vodafone to introduce changes to zero-rated Pass after net neutrality investigation

Germany’s national telecoms regulator, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), ordered Vodafone to make changes to its zero-rated Vodafone Pass, prohibiting certain features of the tariff option in its present form. Vodafone must bring its zero-rated Pass in line with EU roaming regulations and make the Pass available to customers for use throughout the EU under the same conditions as in their home market of Germany, said the BNetzA. The regulator also told Vodafone to the increase the 5 GB limit on customer data use while roaming under its fair-use policy, although it said Vodafone was “generally permitted” to limit data use with an appropriate fair-use policy.

In terms of video streaming, Vodafone does not reduce the quality of video streams at times as does Deutsche Telekom with its own zero-rated service StreamOn, although Vodafone said it reserved the right to reduce streams to SD quality within legal limits. Vodafone said it would inform the BNetzA three months ahead of time before it introduces features reducing the quality of video streams, giving the regulator enough time to ban any unlawful restrictions on video quality. The BNetzA said it expects Vodafone will follow the outcome of the current court proceedings over Telekom’s StreamOn service. 

The BNetzA said it would drop its investigations into the Vodafone Pass’s violations of net neutrality guidelines after Vodafone introduced the changes to the Pass bringing it in line with these regulations. Changes Vodafone made to its service provider contracts have likewise brought the Vodafone Pass in line with the regulator’s demand for “transparent, open and nondiscriminatory” participation by third parties in the Vodafone Pass. Previously, the Pass was configured so that only content providers with an app of their own could become partners of the Pass, which third parties argued was an impairment for both their competitive opportunities as well as a diverse media landscape.

Vodafone said it was currently looking into “legal actions” against the regulator’s order, reported Heise Online. The changes ordered by the Federal Network Agency throw the economic viability of the Vodafone Pass into question, a spokesperson from the company told Heise. Enabling the use of zero-rated services like Pass throughout the EU would lead to “unpredictable costs” that local network operators would have to bear, rendering these services not commercially viable in turn, added the spokesperson.