Sir Tim Berners-Lee (TimB), the inventor of the World Wide Web (WWW), has agreed to assist the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) in adjusting its new 'Voluntary Code of Practice' on broadband ISP traffic management transparency (revealed on Monday) so that it takes better account of UK consumer rights and Net Neutrality (the principal of treating all internet traffic as equal).

The news came yesterday during an Open Internet Roundtable at the governments Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Sir Tim Berners-Lee is known to be an outspoken supporter of Net Neutrality and some ISPs were perhaps a little surprised to see him join up, especially after the code had already been unveiled just two days earlier.




The new code itself aims to tackle Net Neutrality fears by ensuring that ISPs are more open and honest with their customers about how they manipulate the flow of traffic between a customer's broadband connection and the internet (e.g. restrictions on P2P, iPlayer, Facebook, Skype etc.).

So far the vast majority of broadband ISPs have welcomed the new code with open arms (here), although many consumers and businesses remain sceptical and fear that broadband providers will not provide enough detail or simply revert back to their old bad habits (i.e. small print). Sir Tim's appointment might go some way to addressing those fears.