[Nairiobi] Internet Governance Forum (IGF 2026)

IGF 2026 WS #450 future of interconnection disputes - mobile, satellite, DNA

After several years of procrastination and debates, European Commission settled on mandatory mediation of interconnection disputes under Digital Netowkr Act ("DNA") as a way to upgrade the "network fee" discourse without revising the existing rules of Open Internet Regulation and its core network neutrality norms. Questions still abound on whether "network fee" packaged in paid peering still violates network neutrality, under what standards mediators will propose settlement terms, whether new pushes against (GSMA Intelligence's new reports) network neutrality and the likes are to be taken into account in shaping the forthcoming negotiations supervised under the DNA mediations. Previous disputes and regulatory/legislative actions in the US, Korea, Germany, Colombia, etc., will shed light on how those disputes will be handled, the lessons on how to navigate them, and the probable impact of future of internet governance.

Organizer 1: Kyung Sin Park, Open Net

Speaker 1: Kyung Sin Park, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Thomas Lohninger, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Claudia Ximena Bustamante, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 4: Maarit Palovirta, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Moderator

Kyung Sin Park, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
 

Online Moderator

Thomas Lohninger, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
 

Rapporteur

Kyung Sin Park, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

IGF 2026 WS #148 The Future of the Open Internet in an Interconnected World

The open Internet depends not only on rights and rules at the application layer, but also on the decentralised arrangements through which autonomous networks exchange traffic. Peering, transit, Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and caches shape reachability, resilience, competition, traffic localisation and the ability of networks of different sizes to participate. As governments consider how infrastructure investment and demand are evolving in response to AI, cloud services and video traffic, proposals involving network usage fees, mandatory bargaining, facilitated dispute resolution and new reporting obligations may have different effects across the interconnection ecosystem. This roundtable compares experiences from the European Union, Brazil, the Republic of Korea and African markets to examine what can be learned from the available evidence, how different policy approaches respond to concerns raised by stakeholders and what their possible technical, economic and governance implications may be. Rather than framing the issue as a binary dispute between telecommunications operators and digital service providers, the session will distinguish among three related questions: how infrastructure investment can be supported; how the economics and architecture of interconnection are evolving; and which governance principles can help sustain an open and globally interoperable Internet. The discussion will consider different approaches currently under debate, including mandatory payments, facilitated dispute resolution, and transparency or data-collection obligations. Speakers and participants will be invited to reflect on how these approaches could affect peering, transit, IXPs, CDN and cache deployment, smaller Internet service providers, infrastructure investment, competition and end-user choice. Through moderated discussion, audience questions and live polling, the session will seek to identify areas of agreement, points of uncertainty and questions requiring further evidence across different market and regional contexts.
 
Organizer 1: Thobias Moura, dig.ia
Organizer 2: Amrita Choudhury, CCAOI

Organizer 3: Milena Cramar Londero, Internet Society - Brazil Chapter 
 

Speaker 1: Amrita Choudhury, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Lara Levet, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Phokeer Amreesh, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 4: Thomas Lohninger, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
 

Moderator

Thobias Moura, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
 

Online Moderator

Milena Cramar Londero, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
 

Rapporteur

Milena Cramar Londero, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)