Deutsche Telekom in breach of net neutrality, says German regulator
The Federal Network Agency in Germany has decided that Deutsche Telekom’s StreamOn service partially violates net neutrality rules. StreamOn, a zero rating video and audio streaming service, was found to be in breach of net neutrality as the company does not treat video and audio services equally when reducing the high-speed data volume integrated in consumers’ mobile phone tariffs. The company, which has two weeks to address the issues identified by the regulator, has declared that it does not agree with the authority’s legal position, as ‘it only applies its own very narrow interpretation of EU law in this case’. On the other hand, the Federation of German Consumer Organisations is dissatisfied with the decision, arguing that the zero rating service should have been completely banned, as it ‘reduce[s] the freedom of choice for consumers, but also competition between service providers’.