The UK coalition governments Minister for Communications and the Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey, has backed proposals by Ofcom that would shun Net Neutrality (the principal of treating all internet traffic as equal) and allow big broadband ISPs the power to effectively favour some online content over others.

However Vaizey also took an almost identical line to the European Commission (EC) last week (here) and warned ISPs to ensure that consumers still had access to all "legal content [and] service[s]". The minister said the government would take into account three factors before considering any proposals:

Openness – consumers should be able to access any legal content or service. Content providers should be able to innovate and reach users.

Transparency – providers should set out in detail the extent of their traffic management and the impact on customers.

Support for innovation and investment – ISPs should be able to manage their networks to ensure a good service and have flexibility in business models. Competition is important for ensuring continued openness and choice.

However, ensuring "access" is not the same as requiring an equal quality of service, although this is admittedly somewhat of a grey area given the already prevalent and perfectly acceptable use of Traffic Management systems by most UK ISPs (i.e. for load balancing).

However the real debate is not with general network management solutions but the potential for harm that could occur if ISPs start favouring content sources based on who pays them the most cash. At its worst some content providers, such as Skype, Facebook or even Google, could be forced onto a slower connection that might make them unusable.


At present most ISPs still hide their restrictions behind vague Fair Usage Policies (FUP). Elsewhere those that do explain the limits can still make it incredibly tedious to find the detail. Asking ISPs to be "open" and "transparent" is of little use if that merely translates into yet more hard to read and or find small print.



In fairness, despite operators like BT and TalkTalk openly speaking of their desire to foster a two-tier mould of internet access and content, there remains precious little evidence to support the need for new regulation. Net Neutrality is a big issue but regulators are predominantly a reactionary force. We would have to wait for any damage to be done before it could be fixed.

However the road for ISPs is not perfectly clear. In the real world consumers are a highly mobile market and if pushed too far they will go elsewhere. The UK ISP market certainly has plenty of choice. It's easy to imagine the kind of uproar that could occur if an ISP suddenly clamped down too hard on content from YouTube, Facebook or Google etc. Most ISPs aren't so dumb as to shoot themselves in the foot by damaging access to vital content.