Congress, please take note that the Dutch Parliament is fighting back against the phone companies on the issue of net neutrality:

A few weeks ago, we talked about Dutch mobile phone carriers planning to charge for the use of different kinds of application, such as Skype, WhatsApp, and so on. They would check people’s data traffic using deep packet inspection, and charge accordingly. This led to a massive outrage here in this glorified swamp – and this outrage has had its effect.

Our parliament stood up to defend the concept of net neutrality, and as such, motioned the government to have it added to our telecommunications act. Not only will this prohibit carriers from forcing customers to pay additional fees for specific types of data, it also prohibits them from blocking certain types of traffic – something the Dutch branch of Vodafone is already doing by blocking VoIP services. This applies to regular internet service providers as well.