Internet is Utility not Luxury : Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is a terrible, technical sounding phrase and suffers with an easy definition.

Telecom companies has done a lot for the last decade, but now these companies are lobbying the Telecom Regularity Authority of India (TRAI) to enact regulation in a way that will change the way we use internet. Telecom operators/ISPs are the access service providers, and can control how much you access, how fast you access and what you access. Without Net Neutrality, ISPs would be able to devise new schemes to charge more from the users for access and services being provided.

Without Net Neutrality, ISPs would be able to block content and speech that they don’t like very easily, they can reject the apps that compete with their own benefaction, and compute Web traffic(reserving the ones who bid the highest for the fastest loading and sticking others to the slowest).

All the content is equal and must be equally accessible, Neutrality means that once you have a internet plan you should be allowed to access any website you want without any discrimination. The Telecom operators want to crave up the internet into bunch of different sections such that you have to pay to access every single of them separately. Just not user’s, but loss of net neutrality can effect the newly based internet business.

The “Constitutional paper for Regularity Frameworks for over-the top (OTT) Services” , TRAI puts the paper on 27th   March and the last date for submitting the complains is 24th April, according to the TRAI reports it says

“The best known examples of  OTT are Skype, Viber, WhatsApp, ChatOn, Snapchat, Instagram, Kik, Google talk, Hike, Line, WeChat, Tange, e-commerce sites( Amazon, Flipkart etc), Ola, Facebook Messenger, Black Berry Messenger , iMessage , Online Video games & movies. ”

Today, users can directly access these websites from anywhere any time, but the new upcoming issue of Net Neutrality can demolish that. All the Apps & Website make a lot of money by sending data across this bandwidth & the telecom operators don’t get any thing.

TRAI saying in one of its clause is that “ The characteristics of OTT services are such that TSPs realize revenues solely from the increased data usage of  internet-connected  costumers for various application ( henceforth, apps). The TSPs do not realize any other revenues, be it carriage a bandwidth, selling or enabling OTT apps. On the other hand, OTT providers make use of the TSPs infrastructure to reach their costumers and offer products/ services that only make money for them but also complete with the traditional services offer by TSPs, these apps also compete with brick & mortar rivals  e.g. e-commerce sites, banking etc.

Another arguments by telecos are making that they pay a very big amount of money to build infrastructure to create and maintain these data services but OTT consume these revenues making it impossible to earn that investment back. The Data usage is making telecos money.

According to the TRAI report, The cellular operators Association of India(COAI), says that you can only provide internet telephony services if you have a special license under the Indian telegraph act 1885.

Many other countries adopted net neutrality, if India wants to progress with those countries an open and free internet is essential. There will be other fights ahead. No matter what, the Internet must remain a forum for innovation and free expression. Open, affordable, fast and universal communications networks are essential to every individual, economic and political futures

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