Otherwise do they prevent need to pay content providers

Will it take to be to a possible congestion of the Internet to one day, the network, prioritize certain flows or traffic types The debate, called "Internet neutrality" in the jargon, takes in all cases of the magnitude while operators are getting ready to invest billions of euros in their high-speed networks. In fixed with fibre optics and the mobile with the fourth generation (4 G) which is scheduled for launch in 2012.

This morning, the Secretary of State for the digital economy, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, will make public responses to the consultation that it had launched in April on the subject. Invited this week to the telecoms and the net forum, organised by "Les Echos", she concluded that "certain types of content can benefit from priority access". "". Can be considered possible to travel in "class" system, but should that be done in a transparent manner and that it is legitimate.

It noted that these priorities should apply to "very specific" services, such as "tele-surgery." "It is not said that such acts must necessarily pass through the public Internet." On the other hand, "on the public network that is the Internet, content must be treated equally", she said later.

For operators, the problem is important. "Imagine a provider of video content on the Internet YouTube, Editor's note decides to encode all the videos in high definition, to send to its subscribers, operators will have to invest an enormous amount," pleaded Eric Debroeck, the regulator in France Telecom. short, everything is a matter of big money and can be summarized by knowing who will finance the networks of the future. Google, Orange, the State or consumers. For Jean - Dominique Pit, head of the strategy of SFR, "users will not pay them only equipment he will have to buy".

Operators would also like to administer their network to give priority to their video stream, or to their services. Otherwise, do they prevent, need to pay content providers. As such, Jean - Dominique Pit considers that "neutrality does not mean passivity to the operator. Thus, "television on ADSL is not processed in the same way as the Internet stream by operators whose profession is to manage the network". Clear: let us manage our infrastructure.

"Balkanization of the Internet".

The problem, it is that "it faces a risk of Balkanization of the Internet, ultimately creating a Net SFR, Orange Net, as was already Net Iran or Chineternet", launched Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of the association La Quadrature du Net. However, "the major Internet players develop their own networks private, to approach as possible to end users. "And they give priority to their content," noted Eric Debroeck. "Google has the third largest heart of network of the world." It is an operator. "It cannot be said that Orange and SFR must be regulated and not Google", agreed Jean - Dominique Pit. Only this is: "what I fear is that an institution decides who must pay." "It would be in an administered economy," argued Jean-Paul Tran-Thiet, lawyer associated with the law firm White and Case. His eyes, however, nothing prohibits operators do not treat all streams on an equal footing. If is not "discriminate" (benefit non-transparently and without justification one site over another for example), can be "differentiate" between different types of services. "On the motorway, trucks and cars don't pay the same price and rates may vary at peak hours" says.

Saw the multiplication of the authorities in charge of this problem (Arcep, competition, digital Secretariat authority, European Commission), in any case, the cacophony is complete.