EU abolishes roaming charges and introduce criticized rules on net neutrality – IDG.se

EU Parliament approves the proposal on new rules for net neutrality and roaming charges. It is clear after today’s vote.

Roaming charges for voice calls, text messages and surf the EU banned completely June 15, 2017, but already the end of April next year lowered the ceiling on fees dramatically. Then the maxavgifterna following:

• Outgoing voice calls: 0.05 euros per minute (currently 0.19).

 
• text 0.02 euros per message (currently 0.06).

 

• Mobile Data: 0.05 euros per megabyte (currently 0.2).

 

How the prohibition of roaming charges, step by step. Photo: EU Parliament.

charge caps for incoming calls have not been decided, but should be lower than the outgoing.

Net neutrality means in short that all traffic the Internet will have the same priority. Operators should not be allowed to some services before, or strangle others speed. If neutrality is disrupted it can have major consequences.

– Thanks to the agreement, Europe will be the only region in the world to legally guarantee an open Internet and net neutrality. The principle of net neutrality will apply directly in all EU countries. The law also ensures that we will not get the internet in two speeds, said Pilar del Castillo, who presented the matter to Parliament.

But the new rules that the EU face today has been criticized by many. It states namely that operators may give priority to certain services, as long as it is not done at the expense of others. Many believe that this creates a sour cream for those companies that can afford it.

There are those who argue that the kind of priorities in the extension can create a segregated internet. The actors who can afford to pay dearly for their services are faster to load, others end up down in a tough moorland.

Many technology companies have been concerned by the proposal. In an open letter sent to European Parliament President Martin Schulz, before the vote, writes the 40 companies and investors to the risk of “undermining net neutrality and threaten to during my European technology industry.” Among the senders are Netflix, Kickstarter, Reddit and North Zone.

A controversial example of Sweden’s mobile operator Tres campaign, where you can stream music from Spotify without count in your data consumption. This gives Spotify priority of Three. Some other companies at risk are streaming sites that generate huge traffic, which can be made to pay dearly to get a sufficiently high priority.

Another profiled critics of the now clubbed proposal is Sir Tim Berners-Lee , the man who created the World Wide Web.

– If the rules are introduced as they are written now, they will threaten innovation, free speech and privacy, and compromise the ability of Europe to become a leader in the digital economy, he wrote on his blog before the vote.

It has tumbled a polarized debate throughout the negotiation of the agreement. EU Council of Ministers has wanted to leave it to the operators themselves to put restrictions, while Parliament wanted to see a complete net neutrality, where no one gets priority.

The proposal voted through today is a compromise that can have a big impact on the Internet’s European future.