Czechs will pay for censorship, senators are going to raise the price of Internet access
A significant increase in Internet connection prices for end users of the Czech Republic may occur next year, if the government bill on gambling passes the Senate.
Prague, May 11, 2016 - A significant increase in Internet connection prices for end users of the Czech Republic may occur next year, if the government bill on gambling passes the Senate. That would allow the Ministry of Finance to block access to certain websites. However, the costs associated with blocking would have to be covered by Internet service providers. The bill does not contain the total financial impact on the ISP. Especially for smaller regional companies, the consequences of the bill, if approved in its current version, might be almost liquidating. A significant increase of retail prices for Internet connection can be anticipated in all providers.
"A system that allows an officer of the Czech Ministry of Finance to block selected websites is unparalleled in Europe. If we allow this to happen, it would be a step on the road towards undemocratic regimes that seek to monitor and control the Internet. At the same time, the proposed measures to allow the blocking of websites will not work. They can be bypassed by both the operators of gambling sites who will have the prescribed 15 days to move their contents to a different address and users who can use a wide range of simple options, including popular applications in mobile phones or so-called virtual private networks (VPN). Instead of fulfilling the plans of the government and the European Commission to invest in the development of high-speed Internet and its expansion in rural areas, operators will have to spend the funds to meet the requirements of this regulation," says Ondřej Filip, CEO of CZ.NIC, the Czech national domain administrator.
"The cost of sophisticated measures of blocking the selected websites will be much higher for the ISP than retention of traffic and location data, which amounts to around CZK 200 million a year. The Gambling Act will cause further costs of hundreds of millions to billions of crowns for Internet service providers alone, as the building of an effective system for blocking specific websites represents something very similar to what has been built for several years in China," adds Adam Golecký, technical director of the NIX.CZ association that brings together ISPs of the Czech Republic.
However, the exact costs that the act will potentially bring are not known, as the Ministry of Finance does not specify what technology the providers should use, nor how efficient it should be. Conversely, spokesmen of the Ministry of Finance declared that technical algorithm of blocking is not important. As it is technically impossible to ensure a hundred-percent block, ISPs become legally vulnerable. Also contrary to the government policy statement, the state failed to analyze the impact of the new regulation on the market of Internet service providers.
"The proposed method of regulation cannot prevent users from accessing the target websites, and thus fails to meet the declared objective. Furthermore, the cost of blocking may affect the prices paid by the consumers of the services," says Jaromír Novák, Chairman of the Czech Telecommunication Office. It should also be noted that the block would be completely ignored by applications for mobile devices that do not use a web browser.
Billions invested by operators (depending on the technology and potential discounts, the sum is expected to go up to three to six billion crowns), according to Jakub Rejzek of the ISP Alliance, will raise the connection prices, reduce rates of investment in infrastructure and have a negligible potential to achieve the goals of the bill. This is in direct contradiction with the government’s strategy Digital Czech Republic aiming at massive broadband development. "Basically, we can effectively block only amateur projects or lottery sites which is not reasonable with regard to the expended funds," says Jakub Rejzek.
The legislation change, which has already passed the Chamber of Deputies and that will be voted by the Senate on May 25, possesses another significant risk. While the bill speaks of blocking sites of foreign bookmaker agencies, which are not licensed to do business in the Czech Republic, the wording is so general, that the Ministry of Finance practically issues a blank check to be used against any web page. This would allow to censor “inconvenient” websites. Moreover, this censorship would be paradoxically paid by Internet users themselves in the form of higher charges for Internet access.