EU regulators take tough approach to net neutrality

Europe's telecommunications operators will have to justify giving priority to certain services on their network, according to new European Union regulatory guidelines in a move likely to disappoint an industry hoping for more leeway so they can boost revenues. The European Union in 2015 adopted its first ever network neutrality rules which require telecoms operators such as Orange, Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia to treat all Internet traffic equally. BEREC, the body comprising the EU's 28 telecoms regulators, has produced a set of draft guidelines on implementing the net neutrality rules, which will be presented June 6 and adopted in August after feedback from interested parties.

The telecoms industry is seeking to increase revenues from specialized services such as connectivity for driverless cars and Internet-connected devices to offset declining turnover from its traditional telephony business. But net neutrality advocates worry about creating a two-speed Internet, benefiting only companies with deep pockets that can pay for faster transmission of their services. The guidelines say operators will only be able to offer such services over dedicated network capacity if it is "objectively required" and only if it does not negatively affect the Internet. 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", the guidelines say.