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| Campaigners for net neutrality argue it is the best way to ensure free and open competition on the internet |
The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (Berec) - which represents all the EU's communications regulators has finally published guidelines clarifying how telecom companies should treat the data they handle, months after a law concerning the matter was published.
In the past, apps and other online services could, in theory, pay more to ensure their products ran smoothly. That appealed to network providers, who saw it as a way to boost profits.
But Berec says only a limited number of services will be able to ask for special treatment, and then only so long as it is not to the detriment of others.
The new rules also set out consumers' right to be free to access and distribute information and content, run applications and use services of their choice, so long as they are not illegal.
The publication has been welcomed by digital rights experts. "Europe is now a global standard-setter in the defence of the open, competitive and neutral internet," said Joe McNamee, executive director of European Digital Rights (EDRi).
What is net neutrality?
The term refers to the idea that all data should be treated equally, regardless of its content. Think of the networks as being motorways. Instead of having slow lanes for lorries and fast lanes for cars, all vehicles can go the same speed.Thus YouTube should not be able to get its video data streamed faster and thus offer higher-quality clips that do not buffer - than Vimeo or other smaller sites, assuming everyone's computer servers can upload the material quickly in the first place.
Likewise, networks should not give preference to video call data over music downloads or web pages. Critics had argued that giving faster internet traffic to one company over another was bad for business and had the potential to threaten innovation.