LONDON, April 29, 2024: Analysis from Omdia’s new report Reigniting the Net Neutrality Discussion shows that the concept of net neutrality regulation is far from rigid as many regulatory developments fall outside a purist definition of the term, instead involving adjustments to definitions and updated compliance guidance, as well as changes in approaches to zero rating and specialized services.
The topic is regaining attention and climbing regulatory and policy agendas notably in the US, the UK, and the EU. However, there are variations in how prescriptive the rules are. “Since net neutrality rules were introduced, there have been significant industry advances, such as increased capacity demands and the emergence of new and innovative technologies like cloud computing, consumer and industrial IoT, and AR. Telcos have requested greater clarity and guidance on compliance, prompting a number of regulators to assess the effectiveness of existing net neutrality frameworks in protecting consumer interests,” said Sarah McBride, Principal Analyst, Regulation, at Omdia.
Source: Omdia
In some countries it has proven beneficial to maintain a degree of flexibility to net neutrality rules for them to remain relevant amidst an evolving technology environment, while in other countries, providing greater clarity and guidance offers better certainty for stakeholders and encourages innovation and investment. Regulators will persist in striving to strike the right balance as new and innovative services continue to emerge in the coming years, necessitating regulations to adapt and stay current.
According to Omdia’s report, the debate continues over what constitutes a “specialized service” and whether to ban zero rating. There have been differing responses to zero rating, with some regulators banning the practice outright and others assessing the competitive threat as limited. McBride suggests “it might be sufficient for regulators to just monitor the effect of zero-rated offers on the market and intervene only when a consumer protection issue arises. Therefore, maintaining transparency of traffic management practices, which is a key element of net neutrality rules, could be sufficient in most instances.”
One aspect that is regularly overlooked in net neutrality guidelines is network slicing, which is increasingly relevant as telcos move to 5G Standalone and look to further monetize their 5G network investments. Network slicing would violate the strictest interpretation of net neutrality, but regulators can choose to explicitly exempt it from any rules. However, most regulators have so far refrained from doing this. In some countries where net neutrality rules have been implemented, there are provisions to identify “specialized services” which slicing services could be classed as and the rules allow for some reasonable traffic management to support them.
“I would expect the discussion to increasingly revolve around specialized services as more regulators assess whether the traditional net neutrality debate is less relevant to these services,” McBride said. “There is likely to be some fragmentation around the world of what is considered a specialized service as each country takes its own view. Inevitably this makes it more difficult for slicing to become mainstream as service providers need to consider that their service might not meet the definition of a specialized service in each jurisdiction.”
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Contact: Fasiha Khan – Fasiha.khan@omdia.com
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