During a speech in Brussels,
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“We have to avoid regulation which might deter investment and an efficient use of the available resources,” Ms. Kroes said during a meeting on net neutrality held by the commission and the European Parliament.
The desire for operators to control traffic on their networks or to pass on the costs to the biggest users ― or to the traffic generators themselves ― has grown as the popularity of video and file-sharing has exploded.
Ms. Kroes’s remarks were her first on the subject following a four-month public comment period that ended in September.
Ms. Kroes, formerly the Union’s competition commissioner, said she would work to ensure that a set of 2009 revisions to the main European telecommunications law would maintain open and fair Internet access. The legal overhaul, which takes effect in May, will require national regulators to define “reasonable” network management practices.
The law also prevents operators from blocking or slowing specific Internet services or Web sites,
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Regulators have the option of setting minimum levels of broadband service to prevent operators from downgrading basic services to encourage the sale of costlier packages.
“We will make sure these provisions are applied in all member states in a coordinated and coherent way,
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Should operators and regulators ultimately fail to cooperate, Ms. Kroes said she was prepared to pursue legal remedies that might allow consumers to quickly switch operators should one block or downgrade broadband service. Currently in Europe, most telecom operators require people to sign one- or two-year service contracts.
The commission’s telecommunications advisory group, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, or Berec, noted in September that operators in more than a dozen countries had slowed or blocked services from file-sharing sites or rivals,
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Most of the practices were halted, Berec noted, after being made public.
Ms. Kroes, a Dutch economist, mentioned during her speech that she had used Skype to call her family last weekend. She advised consumers who were unhappy to leave operators that block, slow or place unacceptable extra charges on VoIP services like Skype.
“There were 21 million people using Skype alongside me,” Ms. Kroes said. “That is a huge market. And I say to those people who are currently cut off from Skype: vote with your feet and leave your mobile provider.”
But her remarks also suggested that the commission was not going to take action against operators like France Télécom, Deutsche Telekom and others that are currently charging their mobile customers an additional �0 to �5 a month,
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Skype has called the extra charges a form of “economic discrimination.”
“We should allow network operators and services and content providers to explore innovative business models,
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