Yesterday, I had a nice opportunity to see the public hearing about the proposed directive related to the Single Telecommunications Market. Quite a big meeting; it took place in one of the larger conference rooms and it was attended by quite a lot of people. Many stakeholders (ie. parties deeply interested in the topic, but with contradictory interests) were present. 

And what was it all about? The drafted documents amending current directives and regulations of Telecommunications Market were "roasted" from all sides. What is in stake? The future shape of European telecommunications market. What the rights and duties of users of these services in Europe will be like? What the telecommunications in Europe will be like? What the Internet be like?

Most of the speakers, commenting on the documents, welcomed the upcoming text, but...

The "but" is the major problem. Everyone expressed own concern. Phone companies were afraid that too much administrative regulation and too much freedom for end-users to choose will make their business
unprofitable and stop future investments in telecommunications business. And having more investments mean having more jobs, triggering economic upheaval.

The position of telecommunications regulators was however somewhat different. One of the best examples might be BEREC (Body for European regulators for Electronic communication). Having undergone many studies, they could show some trends in the current telecommunications market. They were able to explain if the current policies are successful and if not. They also could talk about what they should be in the future.

Then the discussion turned pretty much towards the issue of net neutrality. 

The issue of net neutrality is nowadays permanently linked with a thing called "Specialized services". It is a unique category, created for everything that is supposed to be special. It is simply the bonus content. This one is brought to you by your ISP and it stands out from the "rest of the Internet". Sounds great? So far, yes. 

As BEREC pointed out and others agreed (including some of the MEPs), these specialized services are not clearly defined. This makes no problems whatsoever for any phone company to put simply half of the Internet - or even more - inside of the specialized services group. Thus the company can distribute the bandwidth more effectively. As it was mentioned in the hearing some of the companies would like to put video content to the special category, so they would be able to manage their network better. No peaks or lower bandwidth speeds will occur. But, the control over the Internet is established by the provider. Specialized services represent content controlled by the ISP exclusively. It can be some Internet apps, or other services. It can be even web pages. What if you would put the webpage, now accessible for free, to a specialized services channel? How it would change the behavior of the users? Will they pay more? Will you earn more?

One of the stunning facts mentioned was that right now, most of the Internet users, especially with mobile connection can't enjoy using everything what is there on the global network. Some of the content is blocked. It might be due to the traffic limitations, legal reasons, copyright... In essence: fragmented Internet with only some content available for some people can be closer than we think. And it can get worse - when the users will get used to it, many new barriers will arise. Economical, political, legal ones...

A door for fragmentation of the global data network, where rich companies can "buy" access to more popular Internet zones will be opened. The weak - new companies, initiators of innovations, or simply individuals - are marginalized, because they can't afford it. Quoting Christian Engström - It's like being in a queue, where everyone can buy a better place where to stand. If you are the poorest one, you will be always the last one, never reaching the counter. Is this the telecommunications market we want? 

The devil is hidden in detail. BEREC mentioned that it is good that "Basic Internet services" and "Specialized services" are there. The only problem remains - definition of the Specialized services is still missing. What can be counted as the unique bonus service and what can't? Defining this in the future was one of the suggestions mentioned.

Internet revolutionized the way how we work with data, how we communicate, or even how we can see that the package we ordered (through the Internet) is being delivered to us. It's openness and inclusivity of every user made it a success story. Removing these values from the network or stripping them for profit of the few will cripple our daily lives in a way that we even might not be not able to understand. That is why we need to mobilize all our efforts to preserve open, inclusive and innovative Internet for all.