isen.blog

The Dutch Parliament this week passed two resolutions regarding communications infrastructure. The first

invites the government to propose within a year to parliament for changes in the Telecommunication law, by which the markets for infrastructure and services will strictly be divided by the introduction of a standing charge model as well as the prohibition of the conditional sale of network and services.

The second

invites the government to to propose within a year to parliament for a change in the Telecommunication law, leading to mandatory, open, non discriminatory access to all networks for all service providers.

This story, from Dirk van der Woude, a Dutch citizen and very knowledgeable observer, says both votes were unanimous. This story, from the International Herald Tribune, and several others too, says the resolutions passed by "a large majority."

I don't know how the legislative process works in the Netherlands. What's this about Parliament "inviting" the government to propose laws?

All the articles, including the AP's and this one from TeleGeography, seem to indicate that the European Commission will have a say, too, before the law goes into effect.

The first resolution is especially important to the US because, in my opinion, the only sustainable way to have enforceable network neutrality is to give force of law to the separation between operating the network and operating the services that the network carries. Otherwise, the temptation to gain advantage (.pdf) by tying certain services to the network is so great that US telcos and cablecos are spending an estimated $1.5 million per week to lobby for the privilege. And, unless there's clear and forceful separation, as per the Dutch resolution above, US telcos and cablecos will spend more lobbying, litigating and legislating against any compromise language about treating different applications differently, or about "deliberate" or "anti-competitive" discrimination.

The network carrier should be prohibited legally from knowing or caring what's carried on network -- the Dutch Parliament has proposed one way to do it.

I know that the de jure "standing charge" provision in Resolution #1 will draw the wrath of the market pricing folks. I am sympathetic. I'd prefer to simply mandate separation, and make it illegal for network operators to have any financial interest in service providing entities.

Thanks to Gordon Cook, without whom this news from the Netherlands might never have reached the US.

Technorati Tags: Content-Conduit, NetworkNeutrality