The first major debate on net neutrality before members of the British Parliament was held today, and more or less elicited yawns all around:
The first significant Net Neutrality debate to take place in the UK was held today at Westminster. Chaired by former trade minister Alun Michael and the Conservative shadow trade minister Charles Hendry, the event attracted the chief Telecoms regulator and ministry policy chief, a clutch of industry representatives, and a sprinkling of members of both houses.
What emerged from the sessions is that ‘Neutrality’ is one of those incomprehensible American phenomenons, from which we’ve mercifully escaped. Your reporter was one of those invited to give a briefing – having reported on the issue from both sides of the pond – and said as much. But in the expectation that this would be the heretic view, rather than the near unanimous consensus opinion.
Summing up, Michael described the clamour for pre-emptive technical legislation as “extreme… unattractive and impractical”.
It was, he said, “an answer to problems we don’t have, using a philosophy we don’t share”.
That wasn’t the only surprise.
Google was invited to appear on the panel, but declined on account of fears that it wasn’t neutral enough. That’s sad, but probably indicative of the on-line giant’s change of heart on the subject of a smarter Internet.