The UK Government looks likely to approve Ofcom plans to permit ISPs to abandon net neutrality and prioritise some kinds of internet traffic.
Ofcom recently completed a consultation on net neutrality, concluding that there could be a “real economic benefit for a two-sided market to emerge”, especially in areas such as internet TV.
New Communications minister Ed Vaizey agrees, preferring to rely on market forces rather than regulation.
“The internet has been responsible for an unprecedented level of innovation, which has led to multi-billion dollar companies being formed in just a couple of years,” Vaizey said.
“This is a model that the British government wishes to protect,” he added. “A lightly-regulated internet is good for business, good for the economy, and good for people.”
His stance will certainly be welcomed by leading ISPs. Both BT and Talk Talk said recently that they would be prepared to prioritise traffic from certain content providers — for a fee.
However consumer campaigners are opposed to any change which will threaten choice.
“It will undermine the competitive nature of the Internet, and provide opportunities for market abuse,” said Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group.
The BBC also backs neutrality, not least because iPlayer is one that ISPs may choose to throttle in favour of commercial services willing to pay for preferential access to bandwidth.
The corporation is working on a traffic-light system that will warn iPlayer users if their ISP is throttling their connection, saying it is “highly unlikely” that it will pay to protect the quality and reliability of the TV catch-up service.
