New Guidelines on Net Neutrality to Be Implemented Next Year
The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on Dec. 27 that new guidelines would be implemented next year on net neutrality and Internet traffic management and the guidelines would include specialized services as exemptions to the principle of net neutrality.
The concept of net neutrality can be defined as regarding the Internet as a public service so that Internet service providers (ISPs) cannot discriminate against content providers (CPs) in terms of connection speeds, network charges, etc. The guidelines of South Korea have been in effect since 2012.
The current guidelines stipulate that ISPs can provide extra services by using certain technology. In other words, the scope of such specialized services is not clear yet. In addition, there have been concerns that specialized services would lead to a decline in general Internet quality when permitted.
In this regard, the new guidelines clarify the scope of such services. Specifically, each is defined as one provided for a specific user and a specific purpose with a certain level of quality guaranteed and provided via a network physically or logically separate from an Internet connection service.
In addition, according to the latest guidelines, every ISP must maintain the quality of its Internet connection service at a certain level or higher, must continue to advance its network, and must not provide a specialized service for the purpose of evading the principle of net neutrality.
“In short, the latest guidelines are to guarantee the quality of general Internet services regardless of specialized services,” the ministry explained, adding, "To this end, ISP's Internet connection and specialized service operation, quality management status, and so on will be monitored and relevant data will be requested so that users and CPs can be informed enough.”