Bundesrat expresses reservations about the law against router compulsion

So far the legislative process has looked quite "smooth" - now the Bundesrat has stopped the law already passed by the Bundestag for the time being.
The reason is the definition of the network termination point, especially in cable networks. In a The Federal Council demands a statementto re-examine the current plans.

However, the Bundesrat cannot stop the law completely, as it does not require approval - it remains to be seen what effect the Bundesrat's statement on the router obligation will have. Critical to the whole process is that the Bundesrat seems to argue on input from various "industry associations", which see the contractually agreed data transfer rates endangered if customers use equipment that meets the standards but is not approved by the operator.

If one looks at the cable networks, e.g. in the USA, where there is no router obligation, this justification seems flimsy: all terminal equipment is developed by the manufacturers according to standards which were co-decided by the cable network operators. Other areas, such as mobile communications, also show that it does not cause any problems if different devices from different manufacturers operate together on one infrastructure.

The next step now is that the law will be brought back to the Chamber of the Federal States following the decision of the Bundestag - here there is still the possibility to appeal to the Mediation Committee to amend the law. Ultimately, however, the Bundesrat can be overruled in this case by the Bundestag; since the case of the router obligation is part of the coalition agreement, this can also be assumed. From which date the network operators - especially those in the cable networks - will be forced to allow other devices is still open.

The contribution Bundesrat expresses reservations about the law against router compulsion is first on routerzwang.de and was published by fjeromin ...written.