Net Neutrality
What's Net Neutrality?
Net Neutrality is a principle agreed upon by Telecom companies that they would not distinguish Internet data based on its source, destination or any other parameters. It means that there are no fast or slow lanes for any specific websites or apps, and Telecoms would simply treat data as data. Most of the countries do no have any legal law stating this but Telecoms have generally been abiding by this principle.
That's good, so what's the issue?
Problem is that the Internet companies (providing services or apps) are now directly competing with the Telecom companies. E.g. voice calls have now turned into VOIP calls cutting losses to Telecoms, SMS have been replaced by IP messages. The Telecom companies feel that they are at a loss because traditionally they were the sole owners of the communication space and had to pay huge sums of money to Government for licenses, i.e. even to start up. Additionally Telecoms are bound by laws to maintain security, quality and other parameters to sustain the license. There are no such laws for Internet companies, plus the start up and maintenance cost barrier is nothing comparable. Internet companies can continue to grow and provide value added services. Telecoms are only left with one growth parameter - which is amount of data. There is hardly any value add possible from their side and they feel reduced to a mere infrastructure provider.
Telecom companies re-looking Net Neutrality
Well, in crude terms they are looking to ways in which they can also become partners in the growth and if that means revising their take on Net Neutrality, then be it. What it might mean is that certain Internet services could seem faster than others, not because of their great content or service, but because they have been given a faster lane by your ISP.
Some very innovative tweets were pulled out by medianama.com, just imagine if these become true:
Karthik Srinivasan @beastoftraal
#FutureAirtelCharges You want to buy something on Flipkart? How can they alone benefit from our network? Pay Rs.100/KB to go past cart page.
8:45 PM - 27 Dec 2014
Prateek @KhuranaPrateek
#FutureAirtelCharges 'Hiring a cab? That'll be Rs. 50 convenience charge. Press OK to continue.'
9:41 PM - 27 Dec 2014
Javed Anwer @Javed_Del
#FutureAirtelCharges "we see you are using our network to send work emails. Pay 100/email before clicking send button"
9:27 PM - 27 Dec 2014
It just doesn't seem fair, does it?
The good news is that many top executives in Telecom do understand this and realizing that this needs a change in business model with full involvement from all stakeholders - Regulatory bodies (like FCC, TRAI) as well as Internet Companies. This is what Indian Telcos said. One shocking news was that Netflix agreed to pay Comcast for letting it provide video service which Comcast was throttling earlier, but nobody knows the nitty-gritties of the deal. Net Neutrality has already been sacked at large, its just that the realization has happened now. Its not just Airtel Zero: Facebook to WhatsApp, everyone has violated Net Neutrality in India.
Some very innovative tweets were pulled out by medianama.com, just imagine if these become true:
Karthik Srinivasan @beastoftraal
#FutureAirtelCharges You want to buy something on Flipkart? How can they alone benefit from our network? Pay Rs.100/KB to go past cart page.
8:45 PM - 27 Dec 2014
Prateek @KhuranaPrateek
#FutureAirtelCharges 'Hiring a cab? That'll be Rs. 50 convenience charge. Press OK to continue.'
9:41 PM - 27 Dec 2014
Javed Anwer @Javed_Del
#FutureAirtelCharges "we see you are using our network to send work emails. Pay 100/email before clicking send button"
9:27 PM - 27 Dec 2014
It just doesn't seem fair, does it?
The good news is that many top executives in Telecom do understand this and realizing that this needs a change in business model with full involvement from all stakeholders - Regulatory bodies (like FCC, TRAI) as well as Internet Companies. This is what Indian Telcos said. One shocking news was that Netflix agreed to pay Comcast for letting it provide video service which Comcast was throttling earlier, but nobody knows the nitty-gritties of the deal. Net Neutrality has already been sacked at large, its just that the realization has happened now. Its not just Airtel Zero: Facebook to WhatsApp, everyone has violated Net Neutrality in India.
In support of Net Neutrality
The Regulatory bodies in various countries are debating this and there has been a huge outcry from the Internet community, various public forums (e.g. save the internet, the open internet) and polls (e.g. University of Delaware poll) have been formed. TRAI released a consultation paper with 20 questions spread across 118 complicated pages to get feedback from public. Though the regulatory authorities are playing a big role, but that's not out of its own dangers, we all know how its with China.What's with Zuckerberg and Internet.org?
Internet.org was formed as partnership between Facebook and Mobile Phone companies with plans to provide affordable access to selected Internet Services to less developed countries. It was criticized for violating net neutrality and much hyped. According to Zuckerberg, this is not creating any fast lanes so shouldn't be considered against net neutrality. Purists still did not approve but it did prompt a more open developer access to Internet.org, which was announced recently.
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Future beholds the final verdict on who wins and who doesn't, but we are certainly in here for some battle. Good news is that people are becoming aware of the repercussions and that Net Neutrality has already invoked fair amount of global sentiments, gonna be a long haul.
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Future beholds the final verdict on who wins and who doesn't, but we are certainly in here for some battle. Good news is that people are becoming aware of the repercussions and that Net Neutrality has already invoked fair amount of global sentiments, gonna be a long haul.
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