A year ago, the former Dutch telecoms monopolist KPN unveiled a plan to make mobile users pay extra for data used by certain third-party apps, such as WhatsApp and Skype, that replaced KPN services like text messaging and voice calls. In response, the Dutch parliament quickly added net neutrality provisions to its telecommunications law. Tuesday, the Dutch senate at last approved the law, making the Netherlands the second country in the world (after Chile) with net neutrality written into statute.

The new law also requires websites to ask users for permission before cookies can be stored in their browsers, but these provisions won't go into effect until 2013, giving the European Union some time to address the user tracking issue.

How we got here

Let's return to 2011, when KPN issued a press release announcing its annual report. "In Q4 2011, the wireless market remained challenging, and a further decrease of voice and SMS service revenues was noticeable," it said then. "Data usage continued to rise due to the increased usage of communication apps. This changing customer behavior, which was first witnessed in Q1 2011 at the Hi brand, is now also visible at the KPN brand." (The Hi brand is targeted at a young/urban demographic.)

To keep its average revenue per user (ARPU) up, KPN planned to make users pay extra for using third-party messaging or VoIP applications over 3G. This did not go over well.

The company quickly backpedaled, but the Second Chamber of parliament asked the Minister of Economic Affairs, Maxime Verhagen, to add net neutrality provisions to the telecommunications law. The minister complied, agreeing that charging extra for using certain kinds of third-party apps "went too far." This week, Verhagen defended the law in the First Chamber (the Senate), where it was also adopted.

The new law requires companies providing access to the Internet to treat all Internet services equally. They cannot favor their own services, nor charge extra to access a competitor's service. However, it remains unclear what this means for services that aren't provided over "the Internet." For instance, cable operators and more and more ADSL operators provide video on demand to their subscribers; although these are often based on some kind of IPTV (video over Internet Protocol), such services aren't provided over the open Internet but only over the service provider's network. As such, it's possible to argue that the net neutrality provisions don't apply. (In the US, Comcast is currently making this same argument about its own IP-based video services.)

Net neutrality is broader than just prohibiting charging more money for certain kinds of data traffic. It also applies to selectively slowing down traffic belonging to certain applications or services, and the blocking of applications or services. However, the requirement that ISPs treat all Internet services the same doesn't mean users can once again enjoy visits to The Pirate Bay—an exception is made for court orders.

We'll just charge more for everything

KPN's reaction to the backlash last year was to drastically increase the price of 3G data plans. I signed a SIM-only contract with KPN two years ago to accompany my unlocked iPhone 4, and I paid €10 a month for a modest plan that included 100 minutes or text messages and "unlimited" data at 384Kbps. Today, a similar contract runs €12 a month and has a data limit of 100MB per month—but you do get to use those 100 megabytes at the much higher speed of 2Mbps. Ironically, KPN now has commercials promoting the use of the messaging apps it tried to bill for with the new tagline: "Who still makes calls?"

The other two mobile operators in the Netherlands, Vodafone and T-Mobile, quickly followed suit and raised their 3G data prices as well. However, VoIP—and especially messaging—use relatively little data, so it's now a different class of user who has to pay to keep the mobile operator's ARPU up: heavy Web users, especially those who like to stream video on the go.