(Ishwari Bajpai is Senior Advisor at NDTV; he has been a journalist for 30 years, and has covered the elections since 1984.)
Net neutrality is the big buzz in town. It has suddenly exploded on social media with multiple signature campaigns, most of which are in favour of keeping the net neutral. The government says it is waiting for two reports, one from its own committee, and the other from the Telecom Regulator (TRAI), which has put out a paper with suggestions and asked the public to respond - 3 lakh responses, according to some reports. But if you aren't quite clear about what has triggered this national controversy, here is a quick primer.
The problem is with the telcos. They are increasingly finding that users are using the internet to communicate, and are therefore by passing the telcos' voice and messaging services by using Skype, WhatsApp, Viber and other such apps. This means that telcos are losing income on both calls and smses. TRAI notes that smses fell by 1000 million or 18% between June 2013 and June 2014. International calls, which account for 10% of the telcos revenues, fell by upto 25%. Other services, like cricket scores and stock market info that earlier came through Value Added Services (which were billed separately to the customer) was also compromised. So, obviously the telcos wanted to cover such losses. They believed that since you can't do away with the internet and its apps, perhaps it is best to join them.
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In February this year, RCom announced an agreement with Facebook amongst others, where they would not charge for usage of these sites by subscribers. RCom did not release any information about the commercial understanding between them and Facebook and others.
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It took a few days, but then social media exploded with criticism of this. The argument is that net neutrality is a fundamental right and any effort to restrict a free and open means of communication was unacceptable. To give A preference over B is discriminatory and can, if taken to an extreme, suppress the fundamental right to free speech. And in a sense, that is true - by making access expensive (or slow and hard to get), alternative views could be suppressed by the fact that you could not get to them. Furthermore, this could act as a means for those with deeper pockets to push their views on a particular topic or issue.
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The reason that Flipkart flipped its position on Airtel Zero is, according to co-founder Mukesh Bansal, "It's very important to make sure that the Internet grows in a manner where it is democratic, equally accessible, and [with] absolutely no discrimination of any kind." Unfortunately, after first having jumped onto the Airtel ship, only to jump off when it found itself subject to a torrent of social media criticism, this seems to be an effort to placate the public and, more importantly, their customer base.
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The issue of service neutrality is difficult to agree with, because it is service that defines net neutrality. As for the claim that companies are rushing to join - that does not negate the argument that many will not be able to afford to do so.
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