VoIP throttling with deep packet inspection

Here in the United States, net neutrality has been a hot topic of debate. At the heart of the discussion is the question of whether or not the government has the right to regulate private companies in the public interest. While some have resorted to insulting and terming this “socialism,” the truth is that the government regulates a large number of private utility companies to ensure that everyone has access to the services that are a hallmark of a civilized society. . There is no reason to exclude the Internet from the status of a utility. In fact, the United Nations and countries like Finland have already declared Internet access to be a fundamental human right.

Given all this, it is worrying to note that a number of ISPs in the European Union have been found to be openly indulging in measures such as traffic shaping and blocking applications such as VoIP using deep packet inspection, or DPI. There are two problems here. The first is that there is a clear conflict of interest with those who provide the Internet service and at the same time also offer a traditional telephone service. The latter has proven to be much more lucrative than the former and when people start using their internet networks to replace the traditional PSTN, there is a strong incentive for ISPs to block or hinder VoIP traffic.

But this is artificially restricting the demand for Internet communications and opening the door to further discrimination by private agencies for their own benefit. It’s about time we started treating Internet services like any other service, like water or electricity. Internet Service Providers should be regulated in the same way and forced to ensure that they act as dumb conduits that simply provide citizens with the data connections they need.

Another issue that is central to the issue of net neutrality is the issue of transparency. Even if we accept for the moment that ISPs have the right to conduct their business however they wish and give preferential treatment to certain types of applications, there is no denying that they should be very open about their practices and keep customers fully informed. about the quality of service they are providing. There is simply no justification for secretly slowing down or hindering certain types of traffic without the consent or even knowledge of the customer who is paying for the service.

Transparency requirements are simply a stepping stone to more stringent net neutrality requirements. It’s about time we as customers started demanding to know what kind of Internet access we’re actually getting.