Dutch parliament approves mobile neutrality bill

In what may prove to be a major step forward for mobile network neutrality, the Dutch parliament has approved a bill that would require mobile Internet operators to enable clients to use Skype or SMS app WhatsApp on their networks without additional charges. The bill would as well prevent operators from giving preferential service to their own offerings.

The bill is in substance a legislative response to pricing policies enacted by Dutch mobile operator KPN, which announced disappointing first-quarter revenues in April and laid part of the blame on a service called WhatsApp, which enables users with Internet-connected phons to sidestep KPN's SMS offerings via Internet-based messaging. Even though SMS messages cost mobile operators very little to support, they're offered at very high profile margins and often constitute a significant portion of a mobile operator's revenue stream. To make up the difference, KPN head Eelco Blok announced plans to charge clients for using WhatsApp as then as Skype, which enables users to bypass traditional mobile voice services with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calling.

KPN's announcement outraged clients, not only because of the prospect of having to pay more to user Internet services, however also because it revealed KPN was performing deep packet inspection on its network traffic to monitor closely what apps and services were being used by its clients.

Opponents of the bill and net neutrality legislation in general claim the regulations will stifle competition in the mobile industry, and enable Internet service and content companies to profit off the backs of the infrastructure laid out by mobile operators.

The United States

In the United States, net neutrality regulations recently outlined by the FCC leave the mobile arena largely unregulated, with providers largely able to block specific apps and services-and lock clients into their own-at their discretion, so long as they do so with transparency. The proposed net neutrality regulations are being challenged in court by Verizon, which claims the agency doesn't have the authority to regulate either Internet or mobile operators.

- INTERXION HOLDING NV, , a leading European provider of carrier-neutral colocation data … Full Story Business Wire