tao Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 India has adopted recommendations strongly backing net neutrality that experts say could be the "strongest" in the world. Net neutrality means service providers must treat all traffic equally, and not charge differently based on content. The recommendations explicitly forbid operators from throttling data speeds for any online service, and mandates all content be treated the same. India is expected to have 500 million internet users by June. "Any deviations and violations of the rules of net neutrality -- which come into effect almost immediately -- will be met with stiff penalties," telecom secretary Aruna Sundarajan told Indian reporters. The net neutrality principle is considered a cornerstone of a free and open internet that provides equal access to all and bans "any form" of data discrimination. The country's adoption of the November 2017 recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Association of India (TRAI) comes amid an ongoing global debate on net neutrality. Last month, the US officially repealed rules that governed the way net providers treated the data that travelled across their networks. The net neutrality battle India's fight for net neutrality began in 2015, says technology analyst Prasanto K Roy. Telecom operator Airtel was forced to withdraw a plan to charge extra for internet calls, and shut down a platform called Airtel Zero, which allowed customers to access a few mobile applications for free. Some operators call this "toll-free data", but it's popularly known as "zero rating". Others, including Facebook and Google, were also forced to abandon their zero-rating platforms and deals. The most visible casualty was Facebook's Free Basics service, which offered Indians free access to a limited number of websites. US officially repeals net neutrality rules India's fight for net neutrality India net neutrality rules could be world's strongest The coming battle over 'net neutrality' In March 2015, the telecom regulator published a paper on net neutrality, triggering a million emails from the public, egged on by activists who set up websites like savetheinternet.in. < Here > Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted July 12, 2018 Administrator Share Posted July 12, 2018 Read about it. I'm more looking into the ISP level impact rather than just company level impact of this. ISPs are notorious worldwide and not limited to just a few countries. They are known to slow the speeds of videos and such things. But I disagree with the suggestion of banning zero rating though. ISPs should be allowed to not count the usage of at least their own site I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 10 hours ago, DKT27 said: Read about it. I'm more looking into the ISP level impact rather than just company level impact of this. ISPs are notorious worldwide and not limited to just a few countries. They are known to slow the speeds of videos and such things. But I disagree with the suggestion of banning zero rating though. ISPs should be allowed to not count the usage of at least their own site I think. We had so called net neutrality from 2015 tell not to long ago and nothing improved around here, in a country that were the Government already court ordered to block sites you would need to buy a vpn to get around the blocks to benefit from faster videos and things so you going end up paying more regardless and have speed loss as if they never blocked sites and you can download and stream videos without them blocking you like in the USA. It's not very much different there in India were you need to use a vpn to access certain sites than it is here in the USA were you may need a VPN to keep you're ISP from throttling . In my country it's left up to the isp . And no broadband so far is throttling it's more a problem with mobile internet. But with mobile internet has a big market so if you dont like you're ISP it's very easy to change carriers and get and isp that dont throttle. the downside of a Government controlled internet the ISP cant ever charge more for faster internet , so there is no incentive for them to ever offer it too you and it most likely never will be in places were you dont have very fast internet. They will get paid the same regardless as if they spend money to bring very fast internet to rural areas so they want. It stagnates invitation. Google would not even bring there fiber to towns were they thought they could not make the money they wanted so it's in very few places and all this was under net neutrality laws. The other ISPs were the same way they would not upgrade to faster internet in rural areas. It only helps in places were they have lots of choices. The good news is now maybe more people will have the internet there even if its not best in the world. Quote As of December 2017, 481 million people (35% of the country's total population) were Internet users in India Quote How does it affect consumers? Looking at positives, internet providers will no longer be able to throttle download speeds as compared to streaming or browsing speeds. They also won't be able to allocate faster speeds to certain apps and services while leaving out others. So for example, your Netflix streaming speeds will now be the same as those on say a YouTube video or a video on Facebook. There are loopholes as well though. As mentioned by Nikhil Pahwa in a report on Medianama, a closer reading reveals that licensed VoIP (which includes services like Airtel Talk) and IPTV (video streaming) services may also be exempt on grounds that they are licensed services. This means that streaming and Internet-based calling services that are operated under a license may be given a preference in speed allocation over non-licensed services. For example, an Airtel Talk VoIP may have a higher data bandwidth allocation than WhatsApp's calling service. What do telecom providers and ISPs have to say? The Cellular Operation Association of India (COAI), which is the lobby body for providers, expressed its concerns over the idea of traffic prioritisation and feel that it will hamper innovation, especially in the field of 5G. Its quite telling what the telecom industry lobby is saying via COAI: they appear to be flagging that the Union Cabinet needs to approve what the Telecom Commission @DoT_India has cleared today & are lobbying there for "light touch regulation" — Raman Chima (@tame_wildcard) July 11, 2018 Rajan S Mathews, the director general of COAI in a statement to The Wire said, "Now that the commission has approved the recommendations, which are before the Cabinet for approval, we hope that the Cabinet will consider the concerns raised by the industry so that the Net Neutrality rules that are adopted in India benefit the consumers, incentivise innovation and adoption of new technologies." The COAI essentially believes that 5G-enabled applications should be added to the list of exceptions, to fuel innovation and in time better adoption of newer technology. https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/dot-approves-net-neutrality-framework-heres-how-it-changes-things-for-you-4721411.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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