Regulators find 'traffic management' is common among EU telcos
Regulators find 'traffic management' is common among EU telcos
A group of high profile EU regulators claim that telecoms firms in the region are blocking Voice over IP (VoIP) and person-to-person file sharing using 'traffic management' practices.
After collecting information from 400 telecoms firms in the European Union, the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC) found that this ‘blocking‘ or ‘throttling’ practice is “common” among telecoms firms.
BEREC, which is made up of telecom regulators from each of the EU’s 27 member nations, stated, “The most frequently reported traffic management practices are the blocking and/or throttling of peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic, on both fixed and mobile networks, and the blocking of Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic (mostly on mobile networks, usually based on specific contract terms). When blocking/throttling is implemented in the network, it is typically done through deep packet inspection (DPI).”
The EU regulators will be looking at the traffic management practices in its ongoing review to determine whether it can encroach on net neutrality laws. Traffic management can often be used to help ensure that heavy use of the network by some users does not slow the service down for others.
BEREC claims that the research it has undertaken, which involved collecting data from 150 mobile operators and 250 fixed line operators, found that there is a wide range of traffic management practices taking place in Europe. Its statement on the matter said that a quarter of respondents justified their traffic management by claiming it was a response to ‘security and integrity’ concerns.
It added that much of the traffic management involved throttling specific bandwidth-hungry activities, such as video streaming, while a third of fixed line operators managed their networks to offer specialised services.
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