Dutch internet service providers (ISPs) are considering to charge mobile Internet users higher rates if they use services that require a lot of network capacity, according to NU.nl.

French Minister for Industry Eric Besson, responsible for regulations governing the Internet, recently focused on the supply of content and called for companies like Google pay for use of the French Internet companies because of their high intensity use of the network. The idea of Minister Besson is partly due to discomfort with the fact that foreign content providers do not pay taxes in France, while using French facilities.

Nonetheless, it is certainly an interesting idea for ISPs to "charge" companies that offer products that cause a relatively high burden to network capacity. Recently, administrators of the website MegaUpload accused an ISP of deliberately slowing down the connection of customers who use their service. Using MegaUpload consumes a lot of capacity and an ISP may very well have an interest in constraining the use of bandwidth within certain limits.

In The Netherlands, no plans of price differentiation on the supply-side have been announced. But, Dutch ISPs T-Mobile, Vodafone and KPN do not rule out this possibility. Deutsche Telekom, the German parent company of T-Mobile, announced a plan aimed at content producers last July. Rene Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, told other ISPs that special price schemes should apply for services that use large amounts of data such as YouTube and other video services. The plan had encountered much criticism because it was said to negatively effect openness of the Internet. Moreover, the additional cost for Google or Apple would simply be passed on to consumers.

T-Mobile Netherlands focuses on the customer rather than the suppliers of content. They indicate that their priority is to provide customers the best possible service by allowing the transfer of numerous premium internet services. To manage the rapidly increasing traffic on their network, they consider to introduce a range of different price schemes, based on the type of Internet service that a customer wishes to use. Other ISPs agree that it is feasible to have different pricing plans, leading to increased customer choice between, for example, a subscription for mobile internet that is intended only for email, general Internet usage and / or videostreaming.

Besides consumer choice it is also very important to have transparency. The recent public consultation on net neutrality showed that ISPs need to communicate clearly on the subscriptions they offer and on how they manage data streams on the Internet.

Vodafone seems to regard the French and German ideas for developing new pricing strategies with growing interest: "It may well be that business models are created in which the providers of content and applications take account for a share of the cost, in order to ensure that users can continue to use their application. Obviously, these companies generate revenues with their product. It is a matter of finding a balance." said Vodafone.

KPN, on the other hand, is not supportive of this idea. They fear that changing the contracts with suppliers of "heavy" applications would create a less attractive climate for developing new innovative services. Of course, it are precisely these new products that are most popular, so, clearly there is customer demand for these applications.