BERLIN — As European lawmakers debate how to keep access to the Internet free and equal — so-called network neutrality — they are inundated, not unsurprisingly, by lobbyists.
But the corporate envoys roaming the halls of Brussels trying to make their case, more often than not, do not represent the Continent’s myriad telecommunications and Internet companies, but rather those from the United States. Europe has become the world’s technology regulator. So the AT&Ts and Verizons are pitted against the Googles and Yahoos to shape European law in the hopes that American regulators will follow suit.
“The U.S. companies see the outcome of the fight in Europe as key,” said Jeremie Zimmermann, a lobbyist for La Quadrature du Net, an Internet advocacy group based in Paris. “Each side is hoping to score points on the issue here so they can take it back to the States to influence the outcome there.”
Net neutrality, which La Quadrature supports, is a proposal backed by some free-speech advocates and Internet businesses that would bar network operators from filtering Internet traffic. Internet service providers, however, say that basic traffic management is necessary to balance the soaring demand for bandwidth from video and popular sites.
For consumers in Europe and the United States, the outcome of the debate could influence whether they will continue to be able to download unlimited data using their flat-rate broadband plans or be forced to pay higher rates related to the amount of data they download.
The outcome could also legally empower operators to focus on users of file-sharing software that can be used for illegal downloading.
During the last two months, lobbyists for the American operators and Internet businesses have sent letters to European Union lawmakers promoting their agendas.
Lobbyists for AT&T and Google have also discussed the issue — and in one case directly debated it — in forums held in Brussels for lawmakers and other policy makers.
The question before lawmakers — in Europe at the moment and in the United States probably later this year — is whether such filtering could lead to access fees on Internet businesses and, according to some free speech advocates, de facto censorship.
The approach to net neutrality in the United States has been shaped largely by the Federal Communications Commission, which in August drew up a set of four neutrality principles as it penalized Comcast, a cable broadband operator, for slowing the speed of broadband service to high-volume users.
Comcast is appealing the decision. The outcome of the case is expected this year and could be a major test of network neutrality in the United States, said Markham Erickson, a lawyer for the Open Internet Coalition, an advocacy group in Washington.
In the meantime, the lobbying focus has shifted temporarily to Belgium, where lawmakers are closer to making a decision. Two committees are expected to vote on the legislation on March 31, before a final vote by the full Parliament on April 22. European telecommunications ministers must also approve the plan.
European lawmakers remain split over the issue, which may be more limited in Europe. Richard Allan, Cisco’s head of European regulatory affairs, said lawmakers were likely to let network operators continue to use reasonable management practices, like unclogging traffic bottlenecks when necessary.
With more than 200 network operators in Europe, compared with just five major broadband and four cable operators in the United States, the danger that one operator could filter Net traffic for commercial gain is low, said Manuel Kohnstamm, director of public affairs at Liberty Global, a cable TV operator with 12 million customers in 11 countries. “This is an issue that has been to an extent exported from the States,” he said.
