Two major legislative acts were approved by the European
Parliament.
MEPs want clear rules to prevent internet access providers
from promoting some services at the expense of others. EU telecoms regulator
BEREC reported that several internet access providers were blocking or slowing
down services like “Skype”, which is used to make phone calls over the
internet.
Internet access providers would still be able to offer
specialized services of higher quality, such as video on demand and
business-critical data-intensive “cloud” (data storage) applications, so long
as these services are not supplied to "the detriment of the availability or
quality of internet access services" offered to other companies or service
suppliers.
MEPs underline that internet access should be provided in
accordance with the principle of "net neutrality", which means that
all internet traffic is treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or
interference, independently of its sender, recipient, type, content, device,
service or application.
MEPs also amended the text to ban “roaming” charges (extra
fees for using a mobile
phone to call, send text messages or access the internet in
another EU country) anywhere in the EU as of 15 December 2015.