European carriers are allegedly working on blocking mobile advertising from major advertising networks, including those from
Google, Microsoft, and
Yahoo. A report claims the current plans to remove the online advertising from smartphone browsers in order to save on bandwidth costs, though it will also apparently have the ulterior motive of trying to force the advertising networks to share some of their revenue with the carriers themselves.
According to sources of
the Financial Times, at least one carrier has implemented the blocking system on their network, with a view to activating it in the coming months. The software in question is developed by Shine, an Israeli startup, with chief marketing officer Roi Carthy advising that "tens of millions of mobile subscribers around the world will be opting in to ad blocking by the end of the year." The same software is also said to be under scrutiny by a carrier in the United States for possible implementation on its own network in the future.
It is suggested by the report that the carriers may be willing to allow advertising from Google and its competitors to be displayed, but in exchange for some revenue to offset the bandwidth costs. Such a move could receive scrutiny from european regulators, as they may consider the blocking of such content at the Internet service provider level as be against
Net Neutrality principles on both sides of the Atlantic. Even so,
Ars Technica notes that Europe does not have any clear Net Neutrality rules despite years of discussion, which in theory could allow carriers to perform such blocks while still staying within the law.
Top