EE, Vodafone and Virgin Media this week lent their support to net neutrality by signing up to the Broadband Stakeholder Group’s open Internet code of practice.
By abiding by the voluntary guidelines, ISPs ensure that their Internet access products do not block any legal content. In cases where certain classes of legal content, applications and/or services are not available on a particular Internet service plan, the service provider must clearly communicate these restrictions, and must not market it as an Internet access product.
Furthermore, signatories must not use traffic management techniques to target and degrade content or applications offered by a provider of a competing service.
"Unlike some countries where net neutrality has become a controversial topic for discussion, the U.K. benefits from a fiercely competitive market and high levels of transparency – which together offer the best assurance of an Open Internet," said Matthew Evans, CEO of the BSG, in a statement on Monday.
3UK, BT, Kcom, giffgaff, O2, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, and Tesco Mobile have all already signed up to the code of practice.
"We are delighted that EE, Virgin and Vodafone have now agreed to become signatories," said Jo Connell, chair of advisory group, the Communications Consumer Panel. "The Code has gained significant interest internationally as a positive example of industry responding to a developing consumer need."
