The United States has just passed some drastic net neutrality rules that, among other things, ban Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and wireless carriers from creating a "two-speed" Internet, where there would be a regular (slower) Internet lane and a faster one. This could make ISPs the gatekeepers for what services they allow to succeed on the market, and it wouldn't be good for the innovation on the Internet.
Even though initially it looked like the European Union would be ahead of the U.S. on this issue when the old Commission was in charge, things might change for the worse before the actual net neutrality law passes in the E.U.
Some European countries, pushed by telecom lobbyists, are proposing that there should be a "two-speed" Internet to help ISPs make more money through special deals with Internet services -- the same kind of deals that were banned recently in the U.S. with the arrival of the new rules.
Companies such as Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom argue that they will need prioritized connections for "essential" services they can provide to hospitals or self-driving cars. The existing proposals, drafted by the Latvian government, which currently holds the E.U. presidency, insist on treating all traffic the same but still allow ISPs to charge for faster Internet connections as it's been done so far.
The difference is that they would get paid more by the users of the service for a faster service, rather than getting paid by service vendors to make their services faster. The latter would lead to discrimination based on the type of deals the telecom companies make with those services.
The current net neutrality proposal in the E.U., specifically Amendment 235, allows specialized services to exist, but there is a pretty clear definition of what a specialized service is, as to not confuse them with regular Internet services:
“Specialised service" means an electronic communications service optimized for specific content, applications or services, or a combination thereof, provided over logically distinct capacity, relying on strict admission control, offering functionality requiring enhanced quality from end to end, and that is not marketed or usable as a substitute for internet access service.
As long as the final net neutrality law also states that these specialized or safety-critical services (such as self-driving cars) are completely distinct from regular Internet services and even have their own "logically separated" connections, so that the specialized services and the regular Internet services aren't interfering with each others' speeds, then the net neutrality of the Internet in E.U. shouldn't be impacted in a significant way.
ISPs could still be bound by law to offer the Internet speeds they promised consumers, while at the same time not have a surge in video streaming cause accidents for self-driving cars.
Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
