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@ -25,38 +25,35 @@ a picture of the future development of compulsory routers.</p>
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<h2>Current state and glance into the future</h2>
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<p>The current situation is unclear. It appears there was a meeting of the
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Federal Network Agency and some associations. None of the associations
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that the FSFE contacted prior were invited to this meeting. To our knowledge <a
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href="/news/2014/news-20140328-01.html">the original draft from February</a>
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has been revised and is currently being coordinated between the Ministry of Economic
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Affairs and other ministries. After that there shall be another opportunity for commenting
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before the regulations are passed on to the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag).</p>
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<p>At the moment it is still unclear how the network termination point is exactly specified.
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According to <a
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href="http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/tkg_2004/__45n.html">§45n TKG</a> it seems to
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be the opinion of the Federal Network Agency that they are neither allowed to set a final
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definition of the network termination point (ergo up to what point the Internet service
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provider’s jurisdiction reaches) nor are they required to define verifiable measuring tools to measure
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the quality of the Internet. This is peculiar because at both hearings they mostly dealt with
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this topic.</p>
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<p>It is possible these aspects are going to be clarified by the German telecommunication law.
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The cause for this may be the European <a
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href="http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/connected-continent-legislative-package">
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TSM package (Telecoms Single Market)</a>. It is, however, unclear if and when this
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Europe-wide package will come. Therefore we fear that the legal ambiguities lead to
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consumers continuously being restricted. In a few years this would be hard to reverse.</p>
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<p>At the moment the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs is just ahead of
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finishing a revision of the Telecommunication Act and some meetings with
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companies and organisations already took place. In our estimation the Ministry
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of Economy is headed in the right direction of getting rid of compulsory
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routers.</p>
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<p>Yet there are still some unclear crucial points which are essential for
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customers' free device choice. Among them specific exceptions in broadband cable
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networks and the status of cable modems as well as liability and burdal of
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proof when using other devices than those recommended by the provider.</p>
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<h2>The story so far</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>29.09.2014</strong>:
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After the further procedures were unclear for a long time, <a
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href="https://netzpolitik.org/2014/intransparente-transparenzverordnung-kehrt-zum-routerzwang-zurueck-wir-veroeffentlichen-den-aktuellen-entwurf/">Netzpolitik.org
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published an internal revised draft of the transparency bill (German)</a>.
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The <a href="/news/2014/news-20140929-01.html">FSFE critisises the
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draft</a> because it legitimises the incapacitation of customers. Instead
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of prohibiting compulsory routers as decided in the coalition agreement,
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the draft enables internet providers to hinder customers who want to use
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another device.</li>
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<li><strong>28.03.2014</strong>:
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Together with the CCC and other projects and experts, the FSFE praises the basic
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idea in a <a href="/news/2014/news-20140328-01.html">press release</a> and a
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<a href="/activities/routers/files/20140328_Stellungnahme-TKTransparenzV-FSFE.pdf">
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detailed statement (German) </a> but clearly criticises that users are further burdened
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detailed statement (German)</a> but clearly criticises that users are further burdened
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and that the proposed test methods are inconsistently considered. Most interestingly,
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the formulation of the regulation is substantially weaker than that in the coalition
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agreement, and the still-unaddressed question of network termination points is not
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