EU report reveals scale of ISPs restricting P2P traffic

An EU report that aims to collect information on how ISPs throttle or block internet traffic relating to the net neutrality debate has found that 21% of fixed-line ISPs and 36% of mobile internet providers affect P2P traffic. The report covers 381 Internet service providers, totalling over 340 million customers across Europe.

ISPs across the world are long known to throttle or block file sharing traffic and this is common practice across Europe also. The report is based on a questionnaire sent to ISPs across Europe and takes into consideration 266 fixed-line ISPs and 115 mobile providers, which contained a range of questions covering QoS, customer contracts, network security and restrictions for legal reasons.

Without taking data caps into account, 49 fixed-line ISPs and 41 mobile reports reported to interfere with P2P traffic, affecting at least 20% of all customers. For many ISPs that restrict P2P traffic, these restrictions depend on the customers, time of day and contract restrictions (but not technically enforced.)

While the 36% of mobile providers restricting P2P does not seem surprising, at least 21% also restrict VoIP traffic with a possible addition of 18% depending on conditions. Very few fixed-line ISPs restrict VoIP traffic, but then again, many mobile providers that restrict VoIP don’t do so to ease network load, but to force customers to use its own voice network instead of VoIP.

So far the Netherlands has become the first country to sign Net Neutrality into law, which prohibits Internet providers from interfering with traffic of its users.

Further info including graphs can be viewed on TorrentFreak.