The government was expected to come out with the formal statement concerning the extremely debated topic, Net Neutrality. The government, of course, didn’t release the report last month. Though, according to a report the government will come out with its formal statement this week.
The Economic Times stated that the government’s report concerning the issue will be back at the Centre’s stance. That is the internet should be completely free with no discrimination between content.
The report is still under work and is reported to be in the Prime Minister’s Office which will be put into place and is essentially the backbone of a set of politics around net neutrality.
A person familiar with the matter informed the media that the panel has taken the views of all stakeholders before submitting it to the telecom minister. He continued stating that there were a few critical points concerning the debate such as allowing zero rating plans or not. The report, according to him, will back the government’s stand unequivocally.
The concept concerning net neutrality is easy. On the Internet, all bits are equal, so users pay for what they use with their data. They can chose to text via whatsapp or watch a YouTube video, it’s entirely up to them. The Internet service provider will not prioritise certain applications over others.
Readers should remember that even though Ravi Shankar Prasad, Telecom Minister, has spoken in support of new neutrality it is only the report posted by the government which can tell us if the framing is a consumer-friendly policy or not.
The concept was first brought into discussion back in December 2014. This happened after Airtel announced about its intentions concerning the data packs. After this the company quickly retracted its plans to charge consumers separately for using VoIP services like Skype and Viber over data networks.
In April, after the debate of net neutrality, over a million people emailed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India requesting the regulator to support an open internet in the country. This is an issue which not only affects the users but also the effects the upcoming startups.
