A court in Cologne has upheld the German regulator's decision that Deutsche Telekom's StreamOn offer of zero-rated data for certain services violates net neutrality rules. In particular, Telekom should not throttle the speed for streaming, and the zero-rated data should be available also when roaming in the EU, the administrative court said.
Deutsche Telekom filed an objection against the Federal Network Agency's October 2017 decision banning aspects of StreamOn. The regulator had found that the service violated EU rules and called for Telekom to make changes to the service to align it with EU rules on net neutrality and roaming.
The court upheld the regulatory decision, noting that the EU's net neutrality rules require service providers to treat all traffic equally, also when roaming in other EU countries. As such streaming for StreamOn customers cannot be throttled to the lower speed of 1.7 Mbps, which is not event sufficient for HD quality, nor can be the zero-rated data be excluded when roaming. The court rejected the company's argument that this was a 'voluntary' decision by customers who subscribed to the StreamOn option, as they could not opt out of it.
Telekom may appeal the decision still to the higher court in Muenster. In a blog post, the company said it disagrees with the ruling, as customers may still access the services at higher bandwidths at their own choosing and the EU rules allow for national-only plans. The DVD audio quality is sufficient for most customers, and the StreamOn option has strengthened competition on the German market, the operator added.
Around 1.7 million customers use StreamOn and over 350 content partners are included in the zero-rated data. Telekom said the court ruling would have no impact on the service for current customers.
