Infojustice: A Bumpy Road To Net Neutrality In Brazil

Infojustice.org reports: “On May 23, Brazil’s federal communications commission – ANATEL – passed a resolution with sweeping implications for internet service provision, net neutrality, and regulatory power.

Resolution 614/2013 extends ANATEL’s regulatory reach from its traditional home in telecommunications systems all the way into the provision of internet services. This extension and others like it can significantly impact the internet access market in Brazil. These over-reaches also pose serious challenges to net neutrality policies pending in the Marco Civil legislation (known internationally as Brazil’s “Constitution for the Internet”).

At the Board meeting, the Board decided to include in its Regulation of Multimedia Communication Services (“SCM” – broadband networks) the principle of net neutrality via Resolution 614/2013. The resolution means that ANATEL now asserts that it has powers defined by the Brazilian Telecommunications Act to regulate and enforce network neutrality. And they made ​​it clear they will not surrender this newly claimed power, despite the hope of civil society, policy makers, CGI and other market actors that such regulation would be under the auspices and policy making process of Marco Civil.”

Read the full article here.