"State of the internet in France": Arcep publishes its first report, to guarantee the internet's continued development as a common good

Paris, 30 May 2017: The internet today is a common good and an infrastructure of freedom. Despite its decentralised structure, the internet has given rise to new intermediaries along the chain that connects users to content and applications who have the power to undermine its openness.

Aware of this current state of affairs, lawmakers in Europe and France have adopted provisions to guarantee an open internet, and have given the regulator - which in France is Arcep - the powers it needs to tackle these new challenges.

In accordance with its legal obligations, today Arcep is publishing its first ever report on the "State of the internet in France", which identifies those threats that could undermine the internet's proper functioning and neutrality, and sets out the regulator's actions to contain these threats. This document addresses several issues:

• data interconnection;
• the transition to IPv6;
• the quality of fixed internet access;
• net neutrality;
• working to ensure not only open networks but also open platforms.

Regarding this last issue, on 29 May Arcep published a report devoted to the ways in which end-user devices (mobiles and boxes) influence internet openness.