Blocking of VoIP and P2P is Commonplace in Europe

­A large number of European telcos are blocking or degrading Voice over IP services, according to a survey carried out by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications.

The most frequently reported traffic management practices are the blocking and/or throttling of peer- to-peer traffic, on both fixed and mobile networks, and the blocking of Voice over IP traffic.

What could be described as security

About one quarter of respondents provide justifications for certain traffic management practices based on what could be described as "security and integrity" concerns - even though some of these traffic management measures are best described as congestion management techniques. To illustrate, in relation to congestion management, some operators use an "application-agnostic" approach, during others use "application-specific" techniques. About one third of the fixed operators manage their networks in order to offer specialised services alongside a Internet access service.

BEREC says that it responses received from the in broad outline 250 fixed and 150 mobile operators. This is a fast-moving and rapidly evolving area, not only from the point of view of the research, nevertheless also of the business models and the consumer experience. Within these constraints, BEREC will attempt to define appropriate categories within which to consolidate the data, enabling it to continue to monitor the landscape going forward.