A Dialogue on Zero Rating and Net Neutrality

Below is my 3' presentation at the Internet Governance Forum 2015 -Joao Pessoa, Brazil- during the session "A Dialogue on Zero Rating and Net Neutrality".

Good afternoon.

I will split my presentation into two areas:

A) The situation in Latin America, and

B) The two main arguments I find in Latin America when we approach to Zero Rating. These two arguments are:

1.             Zero rating is against Net Neutrality, and

2.             The Zero rating vs. Access to Internet argument

A) The situation in Latin America:

Many countries already approved, implemented, or are in the process of implementing Zero Rating. According to a recent research from Derechos Digitales, those countries are Paraguay, Colombia, Panama, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Guatemala. Moreover, those countries might be a good basis for field research on the benefits or problems of zero rating.

The rest of the countries did not start yet, as far as I know, any discussion on Zero Rating.

Now I move to what I think there are the two main arguments when people in Latin America oppose Zero Rating.

B) The two main arguments I find in Latin America when we approach to Zero Rating.

First argument: Zero rating is against Net Neutrality

This argument is close related on how we define "Net Neutrality", and also on what "Zero-Rating" is from a technical point of view.

Having said that, some laws passed in Latin America on net neutrality do not appear to be an obstacle for zero-rating services.

On the other hand, there are examples where the regulation of Net Neutrality seems to prohibit Zero-Rating: One example is Argentina. Another could be Brazil.

In Argentina the law prohibits price-setting for Internet access in relation with the content, services, protocols or applications that are to be used or offered through the respective contracts (Law 27.078, art.57 b.).

Since Zero-Rating consists of giving access to content at no cost, it could be against the NN regulation in Argentina. If pricing is a matter of Net Neutrality, those regulations are against Zero-Rating.

In Brazil, under the Net Neutrality regulation in the Marco Civil, there is a duty to process on an isonomic basis (art.9), the transmission of any data package regardless of content, origin and destination, service, terminal or application. If the concept of isonomy means equality before the law, Zero-Rating is against Net Neutrality regulation.

Finally, the second argument mostly used to oppose zero rating.

It consists of confusing zero-rating services with policies that offer real access to the Internet.

For me, this problem is more a semantic problem than a real problem. However, the confusion could be used politically for not implementing policies to increase real access to Internet, which is happening now in some countries. 

Thank you.