Saturday, June 7, 2014

[Chile]: No Compromise on Net Neutrality


While the Net Neutrality on the US goes towards "Fast Lanes", Chile, the first countries to adopt a Net Neutrality law (see "Chile: First Country to Legislate Net Neutrality" - here) does not compromise on any aspect of Neutrality.

Leo Mirani reports to QUARTZ that "A surprising decision in Chile shows what happens when policies of neutrality are applied without nuance. This week, Santiago put an end to the practice, widespread in developing countries, of big companies “zero-rating” access to their services. As Quartz has reported, companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and Wikipedia strike up deals with mobile operators around the world to offer a bare-bones version of their service without charging customers for the data"

Some examples of Zero rate programs:
  • Facebook Offers Free Messaging Through 18 MNOs - here
  • Vodafone India Offers Free Twitter Access - here
  • VimpelCom - Free Access to Wikipedia - here 
Back to Chile's choice - ".. But Chile’s Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones has decided (Spanish) that such promotions violate net neutrality laws and must end in two days, on June 1.According to the law (Spanish), internet service providers must “not arbitrarily distinguish content, applications or services, based on the source or ownership thereof”.

See "When net neutrality backfires: Chile just killed free access to Wikipedia and Facebook" - here.

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