KPN uses deep packet inspection on mobile internet communications.
In a (Q&A) session with investors, KPN has admitted making use of controversial deep packet inspection technologies. By doing so the telecommunications company might be in violation of the law.
In a question and answer session with investors Marco Visser - VP of KPN Mobiel Nederland - confirmed KPN to have used controversial deep packet inspection eavesdropping methods to map mobile data traffic of it's customers. "As far as we know we are the first in the world to do this", according to the VP. According to Visser one of the purposes of dpi is measuring the WhatsApp-penetration among certain groups of customers.
Tuesday KPN CEO Eelco Blok presented numbers(/statistics) meant to illustrate the rapid growth of "sms-killer" WhatsApp among Hi(KPN)-customers. Now it is understood from Visser's comments that this data has been collected with the use of deep packet inspection over a period of at least nine months.
Visser also told shareholders that KPN intends to apply this same technology to VOIP-traffic to enable them to charge separately for related applications. Earlier this year KPN already announced the introduction of new subscription models and for prices of mobile internet subscriptions to increase, but the company never made clear which methods would be used to detect uses/applications like VOIP in its mobile data-streams.
It's unclear if KPN currently still makes use of dpi on it's mobile network, and if the telecommunications company also uses it on it's other networks; the company has yet to respond to any questions regarding the matter. It's also unknown whether KPN only analyses packet headers, or if their analysis also includes the payload. Nevertheless KPN enters a gray area with their use of dpi, and is possibly in violation of the law.