British communications minister favours free market principles over net neutrality

In a speech, the UK’s communications minister Ed Vaizey stated that, as long as ISPs are transparent about their practices, they should be free to manage and shape web traffic. Vaizey prefers a lightly regulated internet, where the role of government only involves ensuring an open and transparent market. During a speech on a telecommunications conference, Vaizey said that: "Under the new provisions providers must present information about their service, including the nature and extent of their traffic management policies and their impact on service quality in a clear, visible and easy to understand form for all their customers."

He claimed that this would be "good for business, good for the economy and good for people".

This opinion is not unanimously held. Google and BBC, both big content providers, oppose the move. They fear that ISPs could make content providers pay for getting priority and fear to be confronted with extra cost. Furthermore they fear that by being able to shape and manage their networks if peak hour traffic gets a little too rough (a practice that is quite commonplace already), ISPs lose their incentive to invest in upgrading their network. This, in turn, might undermine the development of new services.

In a blog post, the BBC’s future technologies director voiced his concern. “This innovative and dynamic ecosystem, that enables huge public value, could be put at risk if network operators are allowed to use traffic management to become gatekeepers to the internet."

In his speech, Vaizey addressed this issue by stating that there is no evidence that traffic management has had a negative influence on either consumers or competition. He sees greater transparency as the primary strategy to prevent such a situation.