Open Internet for New Technologies - Building the infrastructure for the industrial internet

The Telecom Single Market Regulation introduced strong protections to safeguard the open internet, while enabling technological progress. The Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC) now has the important task of laying down the guidelines for implementation of these provisions by the national regulatory authorities (NRAs)

DIGITALEUROPE stresses the importance of maintaining the balance achieved in the Regulation, respecting consumer rights, technology neutrality, new services and reasonable traffic management measures, acknowledging that an open internet is a critical underpinning of a modern digitally-powered European single market.

The BEREC guidelines should be pro-competitive and innovation-friendly, whilst promoting transparency and guarding against discrimination. This is paramount to build a flourishing market for new technologies in the field of Internet of Things (IoT), Machine-To-Machine (M2M) devices and 5G applications for consumers and businesses.

In a digitized society, new services and applications such as eHealth, Connected Cars or Smart Homes, will have a wide range of different requirements regarding performance and Quality of Service. A lot of these applications and usage scenarios are still being developed and detailed definitions or strict parameters of non-Internet Access Services (non-IAS) would risk stifling innovation.

The Regulation should not be interpreted in a manner that would foreclose innovation by defining non-IAS in a way that ties down technology. The BEREC guidelines should therefore retain the freedom to provide services and refrain from applying a ‘closed list’ or restrictive approach.

It is of the essence that Europe builds a competitive and dynamic infrastructure for new technologies, while protecting consumers and guaranteeing the open internet. An overly prescriptive approach would by contrast be detrimental to consumers and businesses alike.

DIGITALEUROPE stresses therefore that the BEREC guidelines must preserve the open internet, whilst at the same time being flexible and technology-neutral for services other than internet access, in order to support opening the market for the development and deployment of IoT, M2M and 5G services.

DIGITALEUROPE looks forward to continuing our cooperation with regulators and offering our technical expertise.