Access to Internet will remain unrestricted and non-discriminatory in India as Govt. approves Net Neutrality

July 11, 2018;

Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan stated,“The inter-ministerial telecom commission, which met on Wednesday, has given a go-ahead to net neutrality in the country. This should come into force almost immediately".

Government has stated that,"Access to Internet will remain unrestricted and non-discriminatory in India".

Government approved Principles of Net Neutrality for India, giving a warning of stiff penalties for any deviations and violations.

Mobile Operators, Internet providers and Social-Media Companies cannot engage in, or seek, Preferential Treatment of content and speed on the internet, or create zero-rated platforms, which offer only a certain category of services/websites as free.

Only exception to the rule: new and emerging services such as autonomous driving, or telemedicine something which may require prioritized internet lanes and speeds faster than the normal.

Move is being seen as progressive as it will not allow any operator, internet service provider or internet giant to create a monopoly on the internet by offering or getting specialized treatment.

Oxford Dictionaries defines Net Neutrality as “Principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favouring or blocking particular products or websites.” What this effectively means is that when you pay an Internet service provider or ISP for a data plan, you should be able to access all content online news, social media, videos, games etc. at the same broadband speed which you have opted for".

Ethos of net neutrality state that ISPs should not give preference to certain content over the other. For example, sometimes ISPs may have their own content which they want to push over others providing similar content, but net neutrality bars any such practice of allowing preferential speeds to any content.

No content should be throttled nor should it be given any boost by an ISP, as per the contours of net neutrality.

Source TOI