Net Neutrality and its implications JANVIER NGNOULAYE, PhD. University of Yaounde 1 – Cameroon The African Internet Governance Forum AfIGF September 2015 African Union Commission Addis-Ababa 1AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications Overview How to understand the issue? The Way Things Are Now Basically, is there Net neutrality in Africa? The way forward on overall the continent 2AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications How to understand the issue I'm happy that we have this podium at this top level in Africa to talk about the Net-neutrality. Thanks to the African Union Commission. The discussion on the topic has been raised up and has been debated in the other continents many months ago today, but no clear satisfactory solution has been yet drafted 3AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications How to understand the issue My take is that at the end of this AfIFG, We must come out with our position, as have done the European commission or US organizations We should note that: “Although it has dominated the talk of network service providers for more than a year, the fight over net neutrality is only getting started” (Shay Moser, may 2015) Today, there are many economic and political issues behind. 4AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications How to understand the issue Net neutrality refers to the notion that's governed the Internet since the beginning All Internet users deserve equal access to online information, no matter whether you use whatever ISP. ISP should be really "neutral" to the content their customers access to ISP should look like a medium, a vehicle, a neutral vehicle Is it the case over the global network today ? 5AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications The way things are now In US the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates net neutrality by "policing" an open Internet The current rules, passed in 2010, prevent broadband ISP from blocking lawful content and other Internet services Actually, Net neutrality advocates argue that the ruling allows ISPs to essentially shape the Internet landscape by promoting the content they want us to see and hiding the information they don’t. 6AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications The way things are now It’s now within their rights to block access to any services or apps that compete with their own or their affiliated companies “People are really concerned about the concept of quality of service and ISPs blocking things, prioritizing some traffic” (Don Bowman, one consumer in US) Now that ISPs aren’t required to treat all web content equally, they could potentially charge providers for the promotion of their content. This would create a new revenue stream for ISPs. 7AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications Basically, is it Net neutrality in Africa? With a technical point of view, I answer NO Africans are still experiencing the Internet access issues ! ISPs deliver to the users in almost all the countries an Internet based on the NAT system till today. This practice technically prevents an Internet user to have a full access to Internet, the users can’t upload their own content ! This practice with the ISPs limits the users to only browse and download. It keeps users the eternal downloaders 8AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications Basically, is there Net neutrality in Africa? While the pool of IPv4 is still available at AFRINIC, and IPv6 (billion of IP addresses) which offers a direct access, and is enough for each individual on the continent. IPv6 is free for the first year in Afrinic The quality of service offered by the ISPs is not a big concern because there is no law which protects the users or which can advocate his cases A the end of the day the ISP can limit what to offer to users based on its internal prioritization criteria ! 9AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Up to 25 Aug 2015 (IPv4 Address Information) Number of Addresses % of Total Allocated Northern Africa31,725, % Southern Africa30,117, % Eastern Africa6,807, % Indian Ocean5,820, % Western Africa3,856, % Central Africa836, % Total Allocated79,163,904 ISPs basically limit access in some Region in Africa, this issue should be addressed Very low IP address used: consequence of the abuse of the NAT by the ISPs, while the IP resources remain available 10AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Up to 25 Aug 2015 (IPv6 Address Information) Number of Addresses % of Total Allocated Southern Africa % Western Africa % Eastern Africa % Indian Ocean367.20% Northern Africa285.60% Central Africa285.60% Total Allocated500 A billion of IP address available to connect each african stocked at Afrinic, but not properly used by ISPs on the continent 11AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications The way forward on overall the continent We must work to keep the Internet Open and Neutral overall the continent All the ISPs should stop doing NAT in delivering Internet services to users, they should leave the privileges to the users to decide to what to download or to what to upload As well as access to water or light is a basic human right, the Internet should be keep as an elementary human right on the continent 12AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications The way forward on overall the continent No government, no ISP should fix a restrictive rule or the type of content one must access to New generation of lawyers on Internet governance issues and net neutrality should be trained We must keep fighting for Net Neutrality on the continent 13AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye

Net Neutrality and its implications Discussions ! Thank you JANVIER NGNOULAYE, PhD. University of Yaounde 1 – Cameroon 14AfIGF Addis-Ababa 2015: Janvier Ngnoulaye