IGF 2014

Explore emerging regulatory strategies, challenges and best practices as developing and developed countries seek to increase and improve affordable Internet access.
Focus will be placed on: identifying mechanisms by which regulatory incentives and interventions can increase Internet accessibility and availability in rural and under-served communities; and the role of regulators in promoting competition, accelerating enabling infrastructure and informing public policy on the deployment of critical Internet facilities, including Internet Exchange Points, the Domain Name System, and mobile broadband.

We propose a roundtable to explore the arguments for and against “zero-rating,” which refers to the practice of offering free access to certain popular online services for customers of particular mobile networks. Several major service providers have entered into arrangements with mobile network operators in a variety of countries to deliver low-data-usage, “zero-rated” versions of their services. In some cases, this means using those sites does not count against a subscriber’s data caps, while in other arrangements, users can access the service even if they do not have a data plan.

One of the main arguments in favor of zero-rating is that it brings down the cost of access to information in less developed countries. A user of Wikipedia Zero, for example, has unlimited, no-cost access everything in the online encyclopedia. Further, providing free access to popular content and services is preferable from an access-to-information perspective than no access at all, and such free access may drive demand for general-purpose mobile Internet access that can help encourage and fund investment in infrastructure.

But zero-rating can also be viewed as requiring discrimination among online content and service providers and may create skewed incentives for subscribers to access the “free” services of identified partners instead of competing services. To some advocates, such preferential treatment challenges fundamental principles of net neutrality, and may present particular development concerns by giving dominant web services an advantage over nascent local competition. Further, the hypothesis that zero-rating will lead to widespread access to a free, open, and neutral Internet is unproven.

We will use this roundtable to analyze and assess the arguments for and against the availability of zero-rated services and to engage in a focused examination of available research and gaps to be filled in this important area for development.

Network neutrality (NN) is the principle according to which Internet traffic shall be treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference regardless of its sender, recipient, type or content, so that Internet users’ freedom of choice is not restricted by favouring or disfavouring the transmission of Internet traffic associated with particular content, services, applications, or devices.

To date, several countries have implemented NN laws, while many others are scrutinising the opportunity to elaborate such legislation. Meanwhile, growing attention is paid to the question of how to finance network expansion. Certain content and applications providers have been experimenting new typology of peering agreements that require them to pay ISPs for a direct connection to their consumers (aka “sender-pays” model). While some might argue that similar arrangements are necessary to support ISPs in enhancing their network infrastructure, the obvious counter-argument is that end-users are already paying for infrastructure maintenance (and enhancement) through their broadband subscription. Furthermore, in the lack of an industrial policy aimed at steering ISPs investments towards network enhancement, it seems difficult to assess whether ISPs will, indeed, invest their revenues in the enhancement of network infrastructure.

This workshop will interrogate such questions as:
(i) how does NN relates to network enhancement?
(ii) is the market alone able to provide appropriate answers to guetentee network enhancement in accordance with the NN principle ?
(iii) how can governmental policies promote private investments in network enhancement without impinging upon the NN principle?
(iv) is there room or need for State-subsidized network infrastructures?