Net Neutrality Is Protected in India; Govt. Stops Discrimination Of Internet Usage!

Supporters of Net Neutrality are rejoicing because Govt. has decided to stop discrimination of Internet usage in India.

In an important decision which will have a major impact on Internet service providers, and Internet users in India, Govt. has approved the new telecom policy which has net neutrality components embedded into it.

This means that free and fair Internet will survive, atleast in India.

Net Neutrality Is Protected In India!

Telecom Commission, which is an autonomous body under Department of Telecom has approved the new Telecom Policy submitted by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Under the new telecom policy, Net Neutrality was a crucial component, which has been upheld, and protected.

However, there are few usages of Internet, which has been kept outside its scope, as of now.

Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said, “The Telecom Commission today approved net neutrality as recommended by TRAI, except some critical services will be kept out of its purview,”

Critical applications of the Internet such as remote surgery and self-driving cars are among those which has been kept outside the provisions of Net Neutrality.

But besides those, everything related with Internet is now protected with Net Neutrality.

This means that Internet service providers cannot discriminate their plans and offerings based on Internet usage. Hence, plans such as ‘Access Whatsapp, Facebook for Rs 19’ and ‘Access Youtube, Netflix for Rs 21’ would not be allowed.

Internet has been identified as free and fair medium, and no one has the authority to throttle it, control it and discriminate it.

New Telecom Policy: Ushering New Wave Of Development

Besides the aspects of Net Neutrality, the new Telecom Policy: National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) envisions several crucial plans and growth related activities for the entire telecom industry.

Now, as per the recommendations of the new Telecom Policy, 12.2 lakh new WiFi hotspots would be installed at gram panchayats, so that every villager can now access high speed Internet.

Rs 6000 crore budget has been allocated for the same, and December 2018 is the deadline for this. Besides, an investment of $100 billion has been sought, which will generate 40 lakh new jobs in India.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has supported the new NDCP, and have said that it will help India to bring in new wave of development and growth, all across the sectors.

Interestingly, COAI had termed TRAI’s public WiFi as a serious national threat for India.

Some of the crucial aspects regarding Indian Telecom which NDCP 2018 covers are:

• Pricing of spectrum allocated to the telecom players
• Review of levies such as license fee and spectrum usage charges
• Ease of M&A rules to allow flexibility
• Review of spectrum sharing, leasing and trading guidelines
• Investment of billions of dollars for expanding and improving current telecom infrastructure

We will keep you updated as we receive new updates.