The European Commission launched a probe Tuesday into charges that telecom firms block next-to-free Internet phone services to undermine competitors or degrade the quality of online videos. With the proliferation of smart phones putting the Internet in the palm of consumers' hands, the European Union's executive arm asked a panel of national regulators to check that telecom firms are maintaining "net neutrality." Neelie Kroes, the EU telecoms commissioner, warned that the investigation could lead to new rules if operators are found to be misleading consumers about the speed of their Internet services or blocking certain applications. The commission concedes that the management of Internet traffic is vital to prevent a congestion of Web networks with the massive use of heavy-data video services such as Google's YouTube website or the BBC's iPlayer. But the commission wants to ensure companies are not managing Internet traffic to discriminate against competitors. In a commission public consultation last year, users and content providers complained that mobile operators in six EU countries were blocking or charging extra for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services such as Skype. Kroes also said she was informed that some providers use so-called throttling techniques to slow down the traffic of video streaming provided by a competitor in order to degrade the quality of content.
http://www.ejc.net/media_news/eu_warns_telecom_firms_against_blocking_skype/
