Government to sacrifice net neutrality to pay for fibre

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 30 Jan 2009 at 08:40

The Government says it is prepared to sacrifice net neutrality in a bid to encourage broadband providers to invest in fibre networks.

ISPs and telcos such as Virgin Media have long argued that they should be allowed to give priority to certain streams of traffic if the content provider is willing to pay a premium. Virgin CEO Neil Berkett recently described net neutrality as "a load of b*****ks".

It could mean, for example, that video content from Sky would be delivered faster than that of other broadcasters, if the company was willing to pay an ISP a fee.

The Government says it wouldn't stand in the way of such favouritism. Lord Carter claims the money raised could be used to pay for Britain's fibre network - having failed to commit any public money to a fibre rollout in the interim Digital Britain report.

"Net neutrality is sometimes cited by various parties in defence of internet freedom, innovation and consumer choice," the report claims.

"Ofcom has in the past acknowledged the claims in the debate but have also acknowledged that ISPs might in future wish to offer guaranteed service levels to content providers in exchange for increased fees. In turn this could lead to differentiation of offers and promote investment in higher-speed access networks. Net neutrality regulation might prevent this sort of innovation.

"On the same basis, the Government has yet to see a case for legislation in favour of net neutrality.

"In consequence, unless Ofcom find network operators or ISPs to have Significant Market Power and justify intervention on competition grounds, traffic management will not be prevented."

The net neutrality argument was a campaign issue during the US elections, with President Barack Obama coming out strongly in favour of the concept.

"Potentially, you could get much better quality from the Fox News site and you'd be getting rotten service from some mom and pop site," Obama argued. "And that, I think, destroys one of the best things about the internet - which is that there is this incredible equality there."