EU information society commissioner Neelie Kroes outlined the state of the "net neutrality" debate in Europe, describing it as still at an early stage and warning against "over-hasty regulatory intervention". Speaking at French regulator Arcep's one-day industry conference on net neutrality, Kroes announced her intention to launch a public consultation before the summer to progress Europe's net neutrality debate. The EU's revised telecoms rules will be complemented by the European Commission's forthcoming NGA Recommendation and Spectrum Policy, both of which will foster investment in efficient and open networks, and will provide a good framework to deal with net neutrality issues, she said. Kroes stated her primary concern was to strike the right balance between the parties concerned. Users should be able to access and distribute the content, services and applications they want, while content providers and network operators should have the right incentives and opportunities to keep investing, competing and innovating. Transparency is non-negotiable, she added.
Les Echos reports that at the conference, representatives of companies such as Google, Yahoo! and Skype responded to European operators’ revenue-sharing ambitions by arguing that it was their services that gave value to networks. Dailymotion’s Martin Rogard, for example, said that since operators received all of end-users’ subscription fees it was normal for them to make the investment in their networks. Yves Gassot, the managing director of European market research consultant Idate, said that Google and Yahoo! have already developed very significant infrastructure to control their services’ quality. If operators want them to pay even more, then they may wake up one day and see they are not the only ones with networks, he added. Vodafone’s executive director and head of European operations, Michel Combe, told the newspaper that the operator had no reason to ask Google to pay it for offering the search engine to customers, but revenue sharing is relevant for content such as video. He also referred to Vodafone’s introduction of differentiated tariffs for business mobile internet customers in Spain in February, where some clients pay less for “best effort” service quality while others pay a premium for guaranteed speeds and priority at times of network congestion. To Vodafone, this does not violate the principles of net neutrality, but allows innovation and new economic models to emerge.
