Considering all the recent hullabaloo surrounding net neutrality and its violation, it was high time I got into the 'current trend' spree by jumping into explaining what exactly this term means and whats with all the fuss all around this thing. So without much further ado, lets quickly jump into the main story.
Starting off with the term itself Net Neutrality, as is evident from the term itself, is derived from two words, Net meaning internet and Neutrality meaning equal. So, simply speaking it means equal internet. Err, doesn't make sense? Well it will. Net neutrality is a general protocol, or shall i say a concept which states that all the data that can be accessed by a person over the internet like the different websites are equal and should not discriminated by the various persons, particularly ISPs (Internet Service Providers), on the basis of content, data, platform contained on the site or the internet. So in a layman's terms the internet service providers are not required to tap on the usage of internet by the user as to what kind of data he is accessing over the internet so as to charge him differently. It is similar to the idea of Open Internet which states that all the individuals can easily access all the resources available over the internet without being discriminated on any basis whatsoever.
What is Net Neutrality?
Starting off with the term itself Net Neutrality, as is evident from the term itself, is derived from two words, Net meaning internet and Neutrality meaning equal. So, simply speaking it means equal internet. Err, doesn't make sense? Well it will. Net neutrality is a general protocol, or shall i say a concept which states that all the data that can be accessed by a person over the internet like the different websites are equal and should not discriminated by the various persons, particularly ISPs (Internet Service Providers), on the basis of content, data, platform contained on the site or the internet. So in a layman's terms the internet service providers are not required to tap on the usage of internet by the user as to what kind of data he is accessing over the internet so as to charge him differently. It is similar to the idea of Open Internet which states that all the individuals can easily access all the resources available over the internet without being discriminated on any basis whatsoever.So is there any problem relating to Net Neutrality?
Not yet. We are all enjoying the internet as it is supposed to be. Free (sans the data packs of course) and without any discrimination. But, come April 22, 2015 and BAM! The telecom regulators are prepping up to destroy the integrity of the internet. The biggest telecom operators of the country, Airtel and Vodafone, have signed a petition to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) stating that they would like to discriminate between the various digital content available over the internet and charge the users whatever and however they want. This essentially means that the telecom companies can charge any amount of money based on the various content you access over the internet. For example, say you access Youtube and Google, the telcos can charge you extra over the data pack you already bought on accessing these sites. Or rather a very good example would be the tie up between various sites over Internet.org. There, reliance has tied up with facebook to deliver 'free content' to the internet users over the Reliance network. Using this, you can access Bing search engine for free but if you access Google, you will be charged for using it. Yes, ITS THAT HORRIBLE! Being charged differently for different websites in a way limiting you to access the internet. And of course the telcos are clever enough to charge more on the most widely used services by their users (here's looking at you WhatsApp)! Also a recent move by Flipkart shows that it is supporting anti net neutrality. They have signed up with Airtel to offer their app and site free for consumers over a data pack known as Airtel Zero.
Indeed, Airtel recently even started charging separately for VoIP but withdrew after lots of rage over their move.
Actually, the telcos are concerned over the growing usage of VoIP like Skype, Whatsapp calls, Viber to name a few. The main source of income of these telcos is voice calls. So the growing use of VoIP or calls over the internet is concerning these telcos and they want to curb the users and force them to use their voice calling system. They say that these VoIP services are using the infrastructure of these telcos to place calls over the internet without being paid much to maintain the infra.
Furiously enough TRAI is supporting this move.
Why should we not support this?
If we allow anti net neutrality laws to be passed in the country, we will be curbed for choices. The common people will be forced to choose between Google and Bing (although we have a clear winner here but still :P), Facebook and Twitter, Instagram and Youtube and similar such sites. This will make our internet experience even more worse as we already are fighting the poor connection speeds even on 3G. Not everyone can afford to pay differently for different content. We are already paying premium for accessing internet. The cost of 3G and even 2G internet data packs are still rising day by day and 4G is still out of reach of normal consumers. It should be us, the consumers, who should decide as to how to use the 1GB data allotted to us, whether we use it up with FB or Youtube or both and not the telcos. Also, this in essence will make the current 'unlimited' plans redundant.
Why should we support this?
Until and unless the reader is a telecom operator and engaged in such business, I don't see why we, the neutral consumers, should support this anti-net neutrality law.
What can we do?
Now here comes the important question. What can WE do? If this would have been some general stiff between the government and the telcos, the answer would have differed: we would not have any control over the result of this move by the telcos. However, we have a voice this time around fortunately enough. TRAI has asked for the reaction of the consumers and want to know our choice. Should we allow this or not. One needs to read this Consultation Paper from TRAI and email them with you response to the 20 questions asked by them. Please do this its in your as well as my interest. This will save us from being charged exorbitantly by the telcos of our country.
If one has access to ministers of the country they can write to them so that net neutrality is not violated. Also you can sign up for this Petition Against Net Neutrality.
Raise a voice friends. Its needed.
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Thank You, this is Rishabh Ghelani signing off until next time! :)
Thank You, this is Rishabh Ghelani signing off until next time! :)