[Reuters] Analysis: Europe seen needing regulation on Internet access

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Europe’s confidence that it need not follow the United States in adopting rules to ensure fair Internet access may be short-lived, as competition between mobile operators and service providers like Skype intensifies.

The European Commission has so far refrained from legislating to avert a looming conflict with the likes of Skype, Google or Facebook, which offer virtually free voice communications and messaging, striking at the heart of the carriers’ business.

But Internet service providers (ISPs) […] already actively manage traffic to make it more efficient, and the potential to do more to protect their own services or earn extra revenues may be too much to resist.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BL2IY20101222