EU telecoms regulator Berec is set to publish a tough set of guidelines on how the EC's new net neutrality legislation will apply in specific circumstances, reports Reuters. According to the draft set of regulatory guidelines to be presented on 06 June, Europe's telecom operators will have to justify giving priority to certain services on their network. The document seen by Reuters indicates that operators will only be able to offer specialised services such as connectivity for driverless cars and internet-connected devices over dedicated network capacity if it is "objectively required" and only if it does not negatively affect the internet.
The guidelines state that national regulatory authorities (NRAs) will have to verify whether an application needs to be delivered separately from the rest of the internet to guarantee a committed level of quality, or "whether they are instead set up in order to circumvent the provisions regarding traffic management".
Services such as high-quality voice calling on mobile networks, live internet TV and remote surgery will probably be allowed as specialised services. "Given that we do not know what specialized services may emerge in the future, NRAs should assess whether a service qualifies as a specialized service on a case-by-case basis," adds the document.
The draft guidelines are set to be adopted by the end of August following feedback from interested stakeholders.
