TRPC Director and AIC Executive Director John Ure quoted on Net Neutrality [TODAY, 30 Jul 2012]

Can telecom network operators (telcos) or Internet Service Providers (ISPs) control the way you consume Web content?

In Singapore, generally the relevant regulators would have to review the circumstances of each case in order to determine if acompany operating in multiple sectors has breached any competition rules, said an Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) spokesperson.

On the specific issue of provision of access to Internet content, ISPs are subject to IDA’s Net Neutrality policy.

Professor John Ure, Director, Technology Research Project Corporate (TRPC), a boutique consulting firm focusing on the economics, policy and regulation of telecommunications and information technology in the Asia-Pacific, said:

“Technically throttling could happen, but Singapore is a small market and the regulator (IDA) would almost certainly step in.

“As Internet access providers come to rely less upon the SingTel network and more on the new national fibre network, this issue should not be a problem for them.

“However, telco broadband access providers may be tempted to throttle selected OTT services, especially those they see as competing with their voice and video business; that would be their natural instinct and the regulator needs to insist that new services based upon new technologies are not unfairly stifled.”

The full article is available here: When Internet providers try to control content [TODAY Commentary, 30 Jul 2012]