A new report from the Body of Regulators For European Communications (BEREC) studies the nature and frequency with which European Internet users experience difficulty and/or blockage when using telecommunications technology such as VOIP and P2P programs.

According to BEREC, the study aims to gain a wide-spectrum understanding of digital traffic in Europe, particularly as it pertains to access restrictions. They seek to understand when restrictions occur, why they do, typically, and how exactly the data might contribute to the controversy over net neutrality in Europe.

Stateside, the net neutrality arguments recently popped up again in Georgia. The Albany Water, Gas & Light Commission sued L2Networks for putting a high traffic demand on cable bandwidth while simultaneously encouraging users to ditch their land lines.

The majority of content from BEREC's report comes from discussions with 32 regulators, 266 fixed and 115 mobile operators. Twenty percent of Europeans have some form of restriction to the use of VOIP, and similar if slightly less severe restrictions using P2P. Reported less commonly were restrictions on more conventional "first generation" Internet uses such as instant messaging and e-mailing.

The report also looks at over-the-top (OTT) traffic. OTT traffic is content that comes direct, from provider-to-customer, without utilizing an ISP operator. OTT traffic is guaranteed only on a "best efforts" basis, meaning that "it will get there when it gets there." Fixed operators reported that the majority of OTT traffic transfer occurs predictably during peak usage hours, and for lower priority data transmissions such as file downloads and P2P traffic.

Another interesting finding included in the report was that, on mobile networks, monthly data caps do not always apply to HTTP traffic, customer service sites and social networking applications such as Facebook (News - Alert).

Interested parties have until the end of July of 2012, to view BEREC's documents publicly.