The EU Raids Several ISPs Over Throttling Of Services Like YouTube

The European Commission (EC) is investigating whether several large European ISPs are abusing their position by unfairly throttling access to internet services in an attempt to extort additional revenues from service providers. The EC “raided” the offices of ISPs in several countries, though they declined to disclose the full list of who had been affected.

France Telecom, aka Orange, Deutsche Telekom and Spain’s Telefónica all noted that they had been raided and that they were cooperating full with the EC regulator.

“The European Commission can confirm that on 9 July 2013 commission officials initiated unannounced inspections at the premises of a number of telecommunications companies active in the provision of internet connectivity in several member states” stated the EC.

The EC hinted that the investigation was to do with ISPs favouring particular internet services over others to the detriment of customers. France Telecom has stated in the past that it slows down YouTube for its subscribers and will continue to do so unless Google pays for more bandwidth. Yet France Telecom subscribers are already paying full for their internet service so why should Google have to pay as well?

We will be sure to bring you more news on this as it develops. I am furious that ISPs could use such dirty tactics to try and demand money off internet sites and services like YouTube in return for “not throttling” bandwidth that customers already pay for! What are your thoughts on this story?

Image courtesy of presstv.ir