UK Communications minister Ed Vaizey has called on ISPs to make further commitments to managing and maintaining an ‘open internet’
This follows a net neutrality roundtable organized by Vaizey yesterday, attended by ISPs, mobile operators, content…
UK Communications minister Ed Vaizey has called on ISPs to make further commitments to managing and maintaining an ‘open internet’
This follows a net neutrality roundtable organized by Vaizey yesterday, attended by ISPs, mobile operators, content providers, broadcasters, consumer bodies, trade bodies and regulator Ofcom to build on a voluntary code of conduct announced earlier this week.
This code was created with the aim of increasing transparency for consumers, enabling them to see how and where ISPs manage traffic.
ISPs TalkTalk and Virgin Media, mobile operators Vodafone, O2, 3 and Everything Everywhere, and broadcaster BSkyB have all signed up to the ‘traffic management transparency code’.
According to the Broadband Stakeholder Group, which is behind the agreement, signatories to the code now account for almost 95% of all fixed-line broadband customers and more than 90% of all mobile customers in the UK.
However, Vaizey said that although it was good to see industry taking the lead on agreeing greater transparency for their traffic management policies, more work needs to be done to expand the code further.
In a statement released yesterday, he said: “That agreement should be guided by three simple principles. The first is users should be able to access all legal content. Second, there should be no discrimination against content providers on the basis of commercial rivalry and finally traffic management policies should be clear and transparent.
“The Internet has brought huge economic and social benefits across the world because of its openness and that must continue.”
The companies that attended yesterday’s roundtable discussion were: Amazon, BBC, Broadband Stakeholder Group, BSkyB, BT, CBI, Channel 4, Channel 5, Consumer Focus, Ebay, Everything Everywhere, Facebook, Federation of Communications Services, Google, ISPA, ITV, Mobile Broadband Group, Nominet, Ofcom, Open Rights Group, Skype, Talk Talk, Tax Payers Alliance, Three, Virgin Media, Vodafone, W3C, WE7, Which? and Yahoo.
