While net neutrality has become a hot political topic in the US, it’s not been quite as openly debated in Europe of late. That appears to be changing.
Today the BBC’s Director of Future Media & Technology, Erik Huggers has thrown his hat into the ring in a blog post supporting the ideal of an Internet free of priority access to companies that are willing to pay for the privilege.
As the provider of the UK’s most popular home-grown streaming media service, the iPlayer, the BBC is becoming the target of ISPs ambitions to gain income from competing services. Talk Talk and BT recently admitted they would be happy to throttle iPlayer traffic speeds to enhance access to commercial rivals like YouTube.
“An emerging trend towards network operators discriminating in favour of certain traffic based on who provides it, as part of commercial arrangements, is a worrying development.” writes Huggers. “Discriminating against traffic in this way would distort competition to the detriment of the public and the UK’s creative economy.”
Continues at: BBC backs net neutrality as the debate heats up in Europe.
Related articles
- Net Neutrality and the BBC (bbc.co.uk)
- Net neutrality: BBC tells EU that ISPs must be transparent about traffic shaping (guardian.co.uk)
- UK’s Two Biggest ISPs Rip Up Net Neutrality (tech.slashdot.org)
- Google accused of betraying internet golden rule in net neutrality row (telegraph.co.uk)
- Building a Better Net? (politico.com)
- Closeted talks on open internet (bbc.co.uk)
