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154 Part 1 Introduction

Differences between the European Union and United States
A contrasting set of circumstances exists in the European Union, compared to the
United States. Specifically, the net neutrality debate was triggered in the United States
by the deregulation of wholesale access services including access to the internet. In
the EU there are obligations to offer unbundled local loops and bitstream access and
these continue to be seen as key tools in addressing competition problems.
As part of its proposals to amend the existing EU regulatory framework, the
European Commission has proposed a range of measures to ensure that consumers
have access to lawful content including proposals to ensure that consumers are
made aware of changes to the terms of service offered by their communications
provider and the ability to switch contracts with penalty. In addition, the Commission
proposed to empower national regulators with the ability to impose minimum quality
of service obligations on communications providers subject to a set of standards
agreed at European level.

Source: Ofcom (2007)

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN,
www.icann.org)
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the non-profit
body formed for domain name and IP address allocation and management. It is perhaps the
most public of the Internet control organizations since domain names or web addresses are
one of the most tangible aspects of the Internet for users. These were previously controlled
through US government contract by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) and
other entities.
According to the ICANN Fact Sheet (www.icann.org/general/fact-sheet.htm):
In the past, many of the essential technical coordination functions of the Internet were
handled on an ad hoc basis by US government contractors and grantees, and a wide
network of volunteers. This informal structure represented the spirit and culture of the
research community in which the Internet was developed. However, the growing inter-
national and commercial importance of the Internet has necessitated the creation of a
technical management and policy development body that is more formalized in structure,
more transparent, more accountable, and more fully reflective of the diversity of the

world’s Internet communities.
The independence of such bodies raises several questions, such as who funds them and who
they answer to – are they regulated? Incredibly, in 2002 ICANN had just 14 staff and a 19-
member volunteer board of directors with Dr Vinton Cerf, who many consider as ‘father of
the Internet’ as its chairman. Funding is through the fees charged for domain registration by
commercial companies that register these domains. The policy statements on the sites sug-
gest that ICANN policy is influenced by various stakeholders, but the main control is an
independent review body of ten academics, lawyers from countries as diverse as New
Zealand, Argentina, Peru, Denmark, Japan and, of course, the USA.

The Internet Society (www.isoc.org)

The Internet Society (ISOC) is a professional membership society formed in 1992. It sum-
marizes its aims as
To provide leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the
organization home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).