ipoque

Netzneutralität

… and how it affects Net Neutrality.Hendrik Schulze at Webmontag

Having Internet is kind of a fundamental right in today’s world. Because the Internet is so important to us and at the same time still a relatively new and fast changing medium, it is widely discussed how to handle it. Net activists, companies and politicians try to strengthen their lobbies. As a company offering advanced network technology we are in the middle of this discussion. At least there is one thing of value that we can contribute: our technical view on things.

Last week I participated in a meeting of the German Association of Telecommunications and Value-Added Service Providers (VATM), which got together to establish a net neutrality working group. The discussion pretty much reiterated the arguments that have been exchanged in the United States for quite some time now. So far this has not been a big topic in Germany or Europe outside of some expert and activist circles. To my knowledge, operators have pretty much ignored the net neutrality debate so far. And I am not entirely sure why that is — maybe because we are just lagging behind the US as in so many other cases, or because of a different attitude toward civil liberties. Either way, I certainly welcome a debate provided it involves all stakeholders: legislators, operators, civil rights activists and technology experts.

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