European Union Connected Continent legislation ending all roaming charges within the EU, creating a network neutrality framework and also circumscribing the ways Internet service providers advertise and market their services are part of a package approved by the European Parliament.
For mobile service providers, the biggest change is the complete ban on roaming charges within EU countries. For application providers, the biggest consequence is anti-blocking rules, referred to as network neutrality, but arguably better described as prohibiting any Internet service provider from blocking lawful apps.
Among other consumer protection provisions, ISPs will have to modify their marketing, refraining from using “up to” clauses when referring to access speed. Instead, ISPs will be required to supply information on the “average speeds” they actually provide to their customers during normal and peak times.
Consumers will be able to terminate their contracts if there is a significant and non-temporary discrepancy between what they were promised and the service they actually get, in terms of access speed.
That will be a bit of a statistical challenge, since actual speeds experienced by any user, at any time, will depend on what other users sharing access resources are doing. Additionally, access speed will hinge on devices used with the access connection, as well.
The legislation also helps harmonize spectrum allocation across the EU, and simplifies regulations in ways that will make pan-EU services easier to create.
Service providers will have the chance to operate in all countries through a single EU authorization, and the chance to deal with that one authority on other licensing issues, instead of being required to get separate licenses in each member nation.
In other words, service providers would gain pan-EU legal certainty and equal regulatory treatment.
Spectrum policies also will be harmonized, a move that is expected primarily to benefit 4G Long Term Evolution mobile networks. Wholesale access policies likewise will be standardized to a greater extent across borders, and essentially making it easier for competitors to enter new markets using wholesale access mechanisms.
Service providers, as you would guess, are not happy with many of the new rules. Service providers probably are resigned to the end of roaming fees, but the network neutrality rules, which would prevent creation of new quality assured services, likely will get more resistance as the rules are considered by each of the national regulators who must also agree.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker 
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