Monday, June 28, 2010

Net Neutrality in Israel: Targeting Voice over Mobile

 
The Israeli government has a unique way to pass new economic laws in the parliament (Knesset) - combining a large number of reforms and regulations into the bi-yearly government budget bill.

The bill, known as the "Economic Arrangements Law" relates to all aspects of national economics (and people life) - including health, wealth, education, infrastructure, transportation and communication. The idea is that all new reforms are brought to the parliament as one package - a way to expedite the legislation process compared to bringing each one separately.  

The process has started for the 2011-12 budget, and according to a report in The Marker the draft includes a new Net Neutrality regulation for cellular services (article in Hebrew - here). According to the article, the proposed regulation will say - "a Cellular operator and importer of cellular end-user equipment will not limit, in any way, the use of applications or services used by his subscribers on the mobile internet network". While this is a general statement, TheMarker says that it targets VoB (VoIP) services, for which some licenses has been granted recently.

In parallel to the above, the Ministry of Communications published  a presentation - "Economic Aspects of Net Neutrality - by Yair Hakak" (Regulatory Economist, Israel Ministry of Communications) - here.

The presentation covers the status of Net Neutrality in the US and the EU and seems to be targeting Voice and Video over Broadband (which is the main aspect of Net Neutrality world wide). For Israel, there is only a very general "next steps" slide. For reference, see a previous comment by Mr. Hakak - "Israel not blocking VoIP" - here.

Related posts:
  • Pelephone Israel Reveals Mobile Internet Information - here
  • Frost & Sullivan: Mobile Operators Should not Impose Bans or Surcharges to VoIP - here
  • My ISP Endorses Quota Policy - here

  • Skype: We Will Charge 3G Calls to Ensure QoS Stays High - here

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