Europe votes to protect net neutrality, abolish mobile data roaming charges

The EU Parliament has voted on Thursday in favor of abolishing mobile roaming fees and maintaining net neutrality. The decision shows the contrast between US lawmakers who have generally favored corporate entities, and the European Union's general tendency to side with the consumer (or, in non-capitalist terms, the citizen).

"This is what the EU is all about - getting rid of barriers to make life easier and less expensive. We should know what we are buying, we should not be ripped-off, and we should have the opportunity to change our mind," said Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for digital affairs.

The so-called Telecoms Package originally described "specialized services," which would have allowed ISPs to charge more for more data-intensive content services such as voice over IP and streaming video.

"After months of negotiations, the European Parliament has today adopted my proposal to close the last remaining loopholes in the text, in order to enshrine net neutrality in European law. Today's vote creates safeguards to ensure that players without deep pockets, such as start-ups, hospitals or universities, cannot be pushed out of the market as a result of deals between Internet service providers and content providers to offer faster services at a higher price," said Dutch Member of the European Parliament Marietje Schaake.

However ETNO (the European Telecommunications Network Operators association) expressed its concerns that the new rules introduced by the Parliament might result in restrictions of users' choice and harm EU businesses.

"The text approved today would introduce far-reaching restrictions on traffic management, which would make an efficient management of the network almost impossible, resulting in a lower quality internet for all," said an ETNO statement.

A final endorsement of the rules would be left to the next European Parliament, which will be elected next month. Individual countries also still would need to reach agreement with the Parliament and the European Commission on a reconciled version of the law, which may still be changed in response to feedback from domestic politicians and regulators.

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