The Netherlands might be a tiny country, but when it comes to broadband, it is one that likes to make big moves. It had been quick to embrace fiber broadband. It was early to the idea of gigabit per second connectivity. And now it is enacting a law that guarantees “net neutrality” for its citizens.
The country’s telecom law was amended yesterday, to ensure free access, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. In addition to the wired Internet, the new amendment will ensure network neutrality is extended to the mobile network and services such as Skype are allowed to work without interference.
The new amendment should be welcome news for folks such as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who has been lobbying for net neutrality to be enshrined in the law. The European Union, of which Netherlands is a member, however has been a bit meh about these issues so far.
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the only thing that was announced is that the Dutch minister for Economic Affairs has informed parliament that he will draft an amendment to the Telecoms law that guarantees net neutrality, it would still need to be ratified by both houses of parliament before it is enacted…
The ban on fees for the QoS boost that Skype needs to work well on mobile networks ensures that it won’t work at all. This is a silly little law that protects incumbents and harms innovation.