经济学人下载:互联网接入 网上的拥堵

Business
商业报道

Internet access
互联网接入

Congestion on the line
网上的拥堵

Internet-service providers clamour for a fairer contribution from content firms
互联网服务提供商要求内容商的付出更加公平

THE raid by the European Commission's antitrust gumshoes this month on Orange,Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica of Spain seemed to come out of the blue.
欧盟委员会反托拉斯调查人员本月对Orange电信、德国电信和西班牙电信的突击调查事先显得毫无征兆。

The companies professed a surprise verging on stupefaction.
这些公司莫名惊诧，全然不知所措。

Even some Brussels insiders were caught on the hop.
即使布鲁塞尔的一些内部人士也是措手不及。

Naming no names, the commission said the inquiry involved internet connectivity.
委员会表示这次调查与互联网连接有关，但没有具体指名。

The question is whether entrenched telecoms firms are abusing their strength in the market for internet traffic to deny video-streaming websites and other content providers full access to their networks to reach consumers.
调查的问题是：强势的电信公司有没有滥用它们在互联网传输市场上的优势地位，拒绝给视频流网站和其他内容提供商到达消费者所需要的完全的网络接入。

Besides the content providers themselves, the other potential plaintiffs are the wholesalers that the content providers use to ship their data across borders.
除了内容提供商，其他可能的原告方是中间人。内容提供商利用中间人跨界传输数据。

These rely on incumbent internet-service providers such as Orange to take the data the last bit of the way to subscribers' screens and mobiles.
这要靠占据主导地位的互联网服务提供商，比如Orange，来完成数据传输到用户电脑屏幕和手机的最后一段路。

All eyes turned to Cogent Communications, an American wholesaler which handles data for the likes of YouTube.
所有人的眼光都转向了一家美国中间人公司：Cogent通信公司。这家公司处理YouTube以及类似网站的数据。

Cogent has complained, fruitlessly, to French and German regulators that their former monopolies were asking too much to handle data, and throttling the flow to consumers when bigger fees were not forthcoming.
Cogent曾徒劳地向法国和德国监管者抱怨它们以前的垄断者对处理数据要价太高，如果不能带来更高的收费，就限制传输给消费者的流量。

It is appealing against the French decision.
Cogent正在对法国判决提出上诉。

In theory Orange and the other network providers might simply pass on to their customers the cost of all their streaming and downloading of funny cat videos and porn.
理论上，Orange和其他网络提供商可以很简单地将它们传输和下载搞笑猫咪和色情视频的所有成本转嫁给它们的客户。

But Europe's market is fiercely competitive; and regulators place all sorts of constraints on how networks can charge for their services, while haranguing them to invest in new technology and new capacity to keep up with rising traffic.
但欧洲的市场竞争非常激烈，监管者对网络为它们的服务收费的方式设置了各种限制，同时喋喋不休地劝它们投资于新技术和新能力，以跟上流量不断增长的步伐。

Though there are similar spats in America, it looks to some Europeans like another example of the rape of the old continent by America's data-mining, tax-avoiding internet giants.
尽管在美国也有类似的争端，但在某些欧洲人看来，这只是旧大陆又一次被美国从事数据挖掘和避税的互联网巨头欺凌。

The broader issue—and the reason, perhaps, why the antitrust watchdogs chose to weigh in—is that Europe is on the brink of big regulatory change.
一个更大的问题是：欧洲正处于一场管制大变革的边缘，也许这也是反托拉斯监察机构选择介入的原因。

A draft law to be published in September will subtly alter the principle of net neutrality,the idea that companies which own the infrastructure cannot give priority to some traffic over that of others.
9月份即将公布的一项法律草案将对网络中立原则带来微妙的改变。这一原则要求拥有基础设施的公司不能偏向特定的流量，不利于其他流量。

This rule has fostered competition and kept prices down in Europe but has discouraged networks from investing.
这一规则在欧洲培育了竞争，压低了价格，但打消了这些公司进行投资的积极性。

The draft law will ban incumbents from blocking data from some sources,
这一法律草案将禁止占主导地位的运营商阻塞特定来源的数据，

but it will let them impose varying charges for different qualities of service for data sent through wholesalers.
但允许它们对通过中间人发送的数据服务的不同质量收取不同费用。

Together with other provisions in the package, this should encourage Europe's telecoms firms to invest in upgrading their networks, its authors hope.
制定者希望，这一规定和该法律草案的其他一些规定将鼓励欧洲的电信公司投资于网络升级。

But the commission's antitrust watchdogs are bound to be on guard against any moves that might reduce competition.
但委员会的反托拉斯监察机构下定决心，时刻提防任何可能削弱竞争的举动。