Net Neutrality in India : Pay Rs 250 per month to access WhatsApp or Facebook

 Don't you agree the Subject on this post is very attractive, i just wanted your undivided attention! But this might be true after 24th April if we don't take action!

I would try explain the Net Neutrality and it’s current scenario in India in as simple terms I can!

What is Net Neutrality?

As per Wikipedia : Net neutrality (also network neutrality, Internet neutrality, or net equality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging deferentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.

Also, Net Neutrality is the Internet’s guiding principle: It preserves our right to communicate freely online. This is the definition of an open Internet.

Net Neutrality in India

As of 2014, India has no laws governing net neutrality. There have already been a few violations of net neutrality in India by some service providers. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is yet to form proper guidelines regarding net neutrality.

History is interesting!

In 2006, TRAI invited opinions regarding the regulation of net neutrality from various telecom industry bodies and stakeholders. Specifically, in December 2006, a consultation paper published by TRAI noted that even though the internet had been neutral since 1998 when private ISPs were allowed to begin operations, the situation might change in the future. Internet Service Providers may discriminate against competing applications and content providers. This may affect services like internet telephony. The paper invited opinions from stakeholders on whether regulatory intervention was required or whether it should be left to market forces.

In February 2012, at the World Mobile Congress held in Barcelona, the CEO of Bharti Airtel, Sunil Bharti Mittal suggested that services like YouTube should pay an interconnect charge to network operators, saying that if telecom operators are building highways for data then there should be a tax on the highway.

In July 2012, Bharti Airtel's Director of Network Services, Jagbir Singh suggested that large internet companies like Facebook and Google should share revenues with telecom companies. According to him, internet companies were making big profits from small investments, whereas the telecom companies were actually investing in building networks. He also suggested that the telecom regulator should establish interconnection charges for data services, similar to those applied to voice calls.

In August 2012, The Hindu reported that according to data from M-Lab, You Broadband, Airtel, and BSNL were throttling BitTorrent traffic.

In February 2013, Killi Kruparani, Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, said that the government would look into the legality of VoIP services. The Chief General Manager of the state-run BSNL, V. Srinivasan also said that services like Skype are illegal. In June 2013, Bharti Airtel began offering certain Google services for free to its cellular broadband users, with a limit of 1GB on the free data.

In February 2014, Gopal Vittal, CEO of Airtel's India operations, said that companies offering free messaging apps like Skype, Line and Whatsapp should be regulated similar to telecom operators.

In August 2014, TRAI rejected a proposal from telecom companies to make messaging application firms share part of their revenue with the carriers or the government.

In October 2014, Vodafone India Marten Pieters CEO suggested that companies like Facebook and Whatsapp should be taxed to ensure a level playing field with telecom operators.

In November 2014, TRAI began investigating if Airtel was implementing preferential access by offering special internet packs which allowed WhatsApp and Facebook data at rates which were lower than its standard data rates.

In December 2014, Airtel changed its service terms for 2G and 3G data packs so that VoIP data was excluded from the set amount of free data. A standard data charge of 0.04 per 10 KB for 3G service and 0.10 per 10 KB (more than 10,000.00 for 1GB) for 2G service was levied on VoIP data. A few days later Airtel announced a separated internet pack for VoIP apps, it offered 75 MB for 75 with a validity of 28 days.

The TRAI chief Rahul Khullar said that Airtel cannot be held responsible for violating net neutrality because India has no regulation that demands net neutrality. Airtel's move faced criticism on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.

Later on 29 December 2014, Airtel announced that it would not be implementing planned changes, pointing out that there were reports that TRAI would be soon releasing a consultation paper on the issue.

Rahul Khullar, TRAI chairman, said that what Airtel tried to do was against net neutrality, but not illegal, as India had no law enforcing net neutrality. He added that TRAI was preparing a consultation paper on regulating OTT services to level the playing field. OTT firms will have to apply for licenses and share revenue with the government.

On 10 February 2015, Facebook launched Internet.org in India with Reliance Communications. It aims to provide free access to 38 websites through an app. Only Bing was made available as the search engine. Sunil Mittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel, criticised the concept and said, "If you are going to make the data free, then let's do completely philanthropic projects. Government must make spectrum free, there should be free network, but it is not happening."

On 27 March 2015, TRAI released a consultation paper on over-the-top services (OTT) and net neutrality for public feedback.

In April 2015, Airtel announced the "Airtel Zero" scheme. Under the scheme, app firms will sign a contract and Airtel will provide the apps for free to its customers.

This could be the future if we don't have Open Internet in India!

Legality

There are no laws enforcing net neutrality in India. Although TRAI guidelines for the Unified Access Service license promotes net neutrality, it does not enforce it. The Information Technology Act, 2000 also does not prohibit companies from throttling their service in accordance with their business interests. In India, telecom operators and ISPs offering VoIP services have to pay a part of their revenues to the government.

Why is Net Neutrality important for businesses?

Net Neutrality is crucial for small business owners, start-ups and entrepreneurs, who rely on the open Internet to launch their businesses, create a market, advertise their products and services, and distribute products to customers. We need the open Internet to foster job growth, competition and innovation.

Net Neutrality lowers the barriers of entry for entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses by ensuring the Web is a fair and level playing field. It’s because of Net Neutrality that small businesses and entrepreneurs have been able to thrive on the Internet. They use the Internet to reach new customers and showcase their goods, applications and services.

No company should be able to interfere with this open marketplace. ISPs are by definition the gatekeepers to the Internet, and without Net Neutrality, they would seize every possible opportunity to profit from that gatekeeper control.

Without Net Neutrality, the next Google would never get off the ground.

Let’s say you run a small business. You have a great product, satisfied customers, and you’re ready to grow by getting into paid search. You launch a PPC campaign, target high commercial intent keywords, write compelling ads, and have these ads point at highly optimized landing pages. Awesome!

…Until your prospective customers click on your ad and their ISP throttles bandwidth to your landing pages because you can’t afford to enter into a “preferential service agreement.” Your landing pages take forever to load, and your conversion rates plummet. You've wasted time, money and effort – all because your larger competitors can afford sleazy backhanders.

Net neutrality is essential to consumer choice. If ISPs get to choose which sites are seen and when, millions of businesses – large and small alike – will suffer, and so will consumers.

Net Neutrality is a Level Playing Field

Content marketing has enabled businesses of all sizes to provide their customers with highly relevant content tailored to meet specific needs, and the open web has allowed countless bloggers to build huge audiences by sharing content that they’re passionate about. This will be impossible if ISPs and large telcos get their way.

The preferential treatment that ISPs could (and would) charge for will tip the scale in favor of huge media companies that can afford to pay for unrestricted access and marginalize everyone else. What about family-owned businesses that run great blogs and rely on quality content as a marketing tool? What about start-ups that have built large audiences through niche content and specialized knowledge? What about the blogs that break the news stories mainstream media outlets are afraid to touch because they’re owned by the same conglomerates as the ISPs? Nope, Nahi, Nako! Oh, and forget about video marketing – unless you have loads of Cash to pay the gatekeepers of Internet (the Telecom Service Providers), it’s not going to happen.

Search marketers are sometimes accused of being reactionary and waiting to see what everyone else does before taking action. Don’t let this happen. Without net neutrality, search and internet marketing will be changed forever – and the results won’t be pretty.

Unless the web remains free and open, content marketing as we know it will be finished.

Some of the important news you should READ:

The importance of net neutrality by THE HINDU

Should India have licensing of Internet services? Net Neutrality? TRAI wants your views

TRAI’s Internet Licensing and Net Neutrality Consultation Paper: Simpler, Shorter Version

How Indian telecom operators defend their attack on net neutrality

Flipkart signs up for Airtel’s Net Neutrality violating Airtel Zero platform

Uninor to offer subscribers free access to Wikipedia; Net Neutrality?

Twitter offering Reliance subscribers free access during CWC15; Net Neutrality?

Flipkart Just Ruined The Basic Net Neutrality Principle By Joining Airtel Zero Platform

A group of editors at MediaNama worked over the last few days to create a shortened version of TRAI’s consultation paper and Net Neutrality. They've converted the 118 page document into a 23 page document, reduced redundancy and largely irrelevant data. It’s been restructured in MediaNama style to make it crisper and a little less tedious. It retains all the substance of the TRAI paper, and some of the strangest and some ridiculously biased statements, but without our views, which will be separate. Note that they've added contextual reading and links to help you understand things better.

You can view the paper:

– On Google Docs. Please share it with others, and leave tips for adding more info or making it simpler.

– Download and read the MS Word version or a PDF version.

What You Can Do to Save Net Neutrality?

To recap, the TRAI has asked for views on net neutrality in the Indian context. If you don't want your mobile operator to charge extra for WhatsApp, Skype or YouTube and promote its own services over the others, submit your responses to TRAI's twenty questions to the authority before April 24, 2015 at To: advqos@trai.gov.in CC: mcitoffice@gov.in , secy-dot@nic.in , membert-dot@nic.in

There are plenty of ways you can make your voice heard, preserve net neutrality rules in India, Save the entrepreneurs and start-ups and our Freedom:

• Send a letter to TRAI : Letter Format is below with Contact details of Email, Fax and Social media
• Phone or email TRAI to call for strong net neutrality laws
• Sign a petition on Change.org
• Spread the word on your social networks about net neutrality and its importance that will affect everyone life online

Send letter to :

Designation: Cabinet Minister, Hon'ble Minister Department of Telecom

Name: Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad

Direct No: +91-11-23739191,+91-11-23372177

Fax No: +91-11-23723330

Email: mcitoffice@gov.in

Social : " target="_blank" rel="noopener"> / http://www.twitter.com/rprasad

Designation: Chairman TC & Secy (Technology)

Name: Shri Rakesh Garg

Direct No: +91 - 11 - 23719898

Fax No: 23711514

Email: secy-dot@nic.in

Designation: Member (Technology)

Name: Shri A K Bhargava

Direct No: +91 – 11 - 23372307

Fax No: +91 – 11 - 23372353

Email: membert-dot@nic.in

Write a Letter to;

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Ravi Shankar Prasad / Shri Rakesh Garg / Shri A K Bhargava

Department of Telecommunication / Chairman TC & Secy (Technology) / Member (Technology)

I wanted express my concern against the motives of telecom carriers to restrict fair access to the open internet (net neutrality). I personally believe the internet is a very vital resource. It helps me communicate, work, and thrive as a citizen. If telecom operators will discriminate internet traffic on the basis of which services pay the most, we are allowing Telecom service providers control over a vital and necessary technological resource. By doing so we allow them to define what information we can view; what entertainment we can access; and how companies can innovate. Where is the freedom of expression on this?

This is completely unfair and harms India’s long term role in the global market and Digital India plan of our honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I strongly believe the growth of Telecom Service Provider and the well-being of the internet can go hand-in-hand. I’m asking for a framework to ensure long term and fair access for all services regardless of sizes.

Nowhere in the world has the Net Neutrality been opposed by the government, in fact in many countries Open Internet is the norm. I want to see my generation and those that come after me to have unfettered access to the Internet, with no Telecommunications or ISPs having the ability to charge for specific services I use on top of it. Please understand that the internet is an important resource and vital to me and to every other Indian citizen. I would like to see it kept free and protected under Net Neutrality to ensure fair and equal access for all and forever.

I would request you to do what is right for the citizens of India.

Thanks & Regards,

Chandresh Dedhia

Please feel free to comment any omissions, references or update to the existing news.

Sources: Wikipedia, MediaNama, Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Open Internet!

P.S: Views in this post are personal and are not associate with any of my companies or