Calling the UK Minister to act to protect the open Internet
Today, a group of 18 organizations representing a broad spectrum of society and the economy has sent an open letter to Ed Vaizey, MP (PDF), the UK Minister in charge of digital issues, to call on the UK Government to reflect their recent commitment to the open Internet in action on the ground. Skype is part of this initiative because we believe it is important to remind policy makers, local governments and regulators throughout Europe that a verbal commitment will not be sufficient to establish and protect openness.
We strongly welcome the UK Government’s recent statement of support for the open Internet, but we must not forget about the existing restrictions in place in the UK and many other countries around the globe. For example, in countries like France, Germany, Spain, or the UK (to name only a few), several, if not all, mobile operators prohibit their customers from using Skype on their mobiles or they only allow Skype usage at extra cost. Similar restrictions affect many other uses of the Internet, such as video, audio, instant messaging, streaming, P2P, etc. In order to remove these restrictions, the governments and regulatory authorities in these countries – including the UK – need to make sure that:
- Users can send and receive the content, use the services and run the applications of their choice on the Internet, on the device of their choice
- Traffic management is kept to a minimum, and only in place for purely technical or security reasons
- There is meaningful transparency for consumers about traffic management
- New models of Internet access don’t compromise openness
- Effective enforcement mechanisms are in place to ensure openness
As I stated in an earlier blog post, we already have European legislation to protect net neutrality and the open Internet. That’s a great first step. Now, it is crucial that national authorities take it from there and start to implement these rules in order to protect the open Internet and associated consumer rights on the ground, and pave the way for future innovation on the Internet – in ways that will benefit the whole value chain, and the wider economy and society.
This just shows pure greed on the wireless carriers part. They will block anything that has high band width use so they can they resell it to other clients.
Fact: Skype is a nightmare for wireless and telephone companies, robbing them from over charging and forcing them to change the way they do business. Society has had enough of high cost overseas calls and Skype is leading the way for low cost communication changing the way the world communicates.
Not only that, but they also often block calls from their mobile network to SkypeIn numbers, as is the case with Orange France (ex. FT), that tells me that my French SkypeIn number is not attributed when I try to call it from my Spanish mobile, while roaming in France. Luckily I often can switch to another of the French operators and get thru.
Here in France there seems to be a comms cartel rather than free market. Internet access runs around 3 times the price of the UK no matter which carrier you choose, and the “internet phones” you can get, while giving free calls out to various countries (sounds great) cost as much as a mobile to call, whereas the actual cost to the operator is almost zero. Skype on mobiles does not seem to be available in France, either.
Skype (and other VOIP) bandwidth usage is high relative to the old dial-up lines, but low relative to the current level of surfing use. The only reason for blocking VOIP is that it reduces profits on international calls.