Report on compliance with open internet regulation
12 July 2022
We present to you the sixth report of the President of the UKE on compliance in the Polish telecommunications market with the Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding access to the open Internet during the period from 1 May 2021 to 30 April 2022.
In this report UKE analysed the conditions for the provision of Internet access services, with a particular focus on the traffic management measures in place. UKE also examined the terms and conditions for the provision of specialized services by Internet services providers (ISPs). UKE looked at end-users’ complaints with regard to rights and obligations under Article 3 and Article 4(1) of the above-mentioned Regulation. Moreover, UKE presented information illustrating the quality of Internet access service in Poland, as well as the functioning of the certified service quality monitoring tool provided to consumers by the President of UKE, which was enhanced in 2020 with new functionalities.
Analysis of the market situation shows that:
- Over the 2016- 2022 period there is a clear upward trend in the area of data transmission speeds towards downloading and uploading. A particularly large increase in the level of measurements made via the browser in the direction of downloading data can be noticed in the last two years (2020-2022). The average download speed has increased from a level of 50.6 Mbps in 2020 to as high as 92.6 Mbps in 2022, which is a total increase of 83%;
- Zero-rating model services are provided in the Polish market. Services with such a billing method are provided by both infrastructure operators and virtual operators. All zero-rating service providers indicated that both service and content providers could request that access to their services and content did not reduce the volume package of the Internet access service;
- The most frequently indicated specialized services by ISPs, as in previous years, were linear IPTV, VoIP telephony, VPN and data services. In comparison to previous years, one ISP indicated in the UKE questionnaire as a specialized service a telephony service, consisting of the establishment of voice calls through networks allowing two-way communication, e.g. concerning the implementation of calls to emergency numbers or the collection of data on the location of the end device in connection with the routing of calls to the relevant unit of statutory services for assistance;
- The inspection of the contractual documents of sixteen ISPs with regard to the information required by Article 4(1)(d) (first part) of the Regulation regarding the quality of Internet access services provided showed that only six of the sixteen ISPs meet the requirements of the Regulation.
It is worth mentioning that on 8 March 2022 the President of UKE informed ISPs of their obligation to block access to information disseminated by RT - Russia Today English, RT - Russia Today UK, RT - Russia Today Germany, RT - Russia Today France, RT - Russia Today Spanish and Sputnik, having explained that the implementation of the aforementioned obligation falls within the scope of the exceptions set forth in Article 3(3)(a) of the Regulation, which provides for the possibility of applying above-standard traffic management measures to ensure, among other things, compliance with legislative acts of the Union.
