[governance] NN and zero rating in India

[Guru]

http://m.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/telecom-and-it-minister-ravi-shankar-prasad-against-net-neutrality/article7173717.ece/

Coming out in support of net neutrality, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar 
Prasad on Tuesday said the government is committed to keeping Internet 
accessible and available to all without discrimination.

“Government stands for ensuring non-discriminatory access to Internet 
for all citizens of the country,” he said while replying to calling 
attention motion on net neutrality in Rajya Sabha. Net Neutrality is the 
principle that service providers should treat all data on the internet 
equally, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, 
site, platform, or application. The government, Mr Prasad said, agrees 
with the viewpoint that blocking and deliberate slowing down/speeding up 
of lawful content on Internet should not be allowed and customers should 
have unrestricted access to all lawful content on internet. He, however, 
said the implications of net neutrality would need detailed expert 
examination with regards to traffic management, national security, 
integrity of network and investment in infrastructure.

While the debate on Net Neutrality has been on at the global level for a 
long time, in India it was triggered when country’s largest operator 
Airtel announced plans to charge customers for VoIP services, such as 
Skype and Viber. Airtel announced another initiative Airtel Zero, which 
too received a lot of flak as this was seen as violating Net Neutrality. 
The debate gained national momentum when telecom regulator TRAI came out 
with consultation paper inviting user comments on the subject. Over a 
million responses were received by the regulator in support of net 
neutrality. Mr Prasad said, “While TRAI has the power to regulate tariff 
and quality of service, its regulations are subject to the overall 
public policy of the government. On other issues, TRAI can make 
recommendations and final decision rests with government.” The Minister 
said a committee constituted with the mandate to recommend overall 
policy and technical responses to net neutrality is expected to summit 
its report by month end. Based on the panel’s recommendation, the 
government will take a structured view on the way forward, he added.

-- 
Gurumurthy Kasinathan
Director, IT for Change
In Special Consultative Status with the United Nations ECOSOC
www.ITforChange.Net| Cell:91 9845437730 | Tel:91 80 26654134, 26536890
http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Subject_Teacher_Forum

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