On Thursday the European Parliament will get the first and single reading of draft regulations aimed at creating a “Connected Continent” and a single market for telecommunications. The current draft, which was amended significantly by the ITRE committee in its vote on 18 March, is now available in a version that shows the changes made.
Several pieces of the original proposal related to the idea of a single authorization and European virtual broadband were removed. Some provisions related to the rights of end-users were also deleted with the explanation that they are to be dealt with in a revision of the Universal Service Directive. The draft defines net neutrality as: “The principle [that] the open internet means that traffic should be treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference, independent of the sender, receiver, type, content, device, service or application,” but similarly to the original proposal allows for “reasonable” traffic management under certain conditions.
The draft sets the deadline for the end of roaming charges for mobile communications as 15 December 2015, but allows companies to institute “fair use” conditions on users. The debate is set to begin at 08:30 in Brussels on 3 April.
