TRAI to come up with guidelines on net neutrality by early 2016.

After a long period of heated discussions and arguments it is heard that TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) is planning to come up with final guidelines on net neutrality by early 2016. Accordingly to net neutrality principle, ISPs should not discriminate or block any content or apps that ride over those networks. But Airtel's stand to charge separately for calls on the basis of Internet paved the way for a heated debate across India. Hope the new guidelines will give a clarity on the issue and will be in the interest of common public.

The principle of net neutrality calls for equal treatment to be accorded to all Internet traffic, without discrimination or priority for any person, entity or company. While Trai has floated a discussion paper on this topic, a raging debate has broken out in the country following the launch of platforms like Airtel Zero and Facebook’s Internet.org.

Simultaneously, the government panel’s report has also been put out for public comment. Prasad has said that government will proceed after receiving public opinion and TRAI’s recommendations.

I keep hearing about net-neautrality and till now I haven't got a clear picture of it. Could you please elablrate what is it all about?

Originally Posted by waqsi

I keep hearing about net-neautrality and till now I haven't got a clear picture of it. Could you please elablrate what is it all about?

As the name suggests net neutrality denotes being neutral on net. As in the case of a telephone you can call any number from a phone irrespective of the service provider, a user of internet should also get the service without any discrimination. ISPs should not control the traffic that go through their servers. The customer should get the same speed irrespective of the sites he is visiting. This is called net neutrality.

But if there is no net neutrality, ISP will have the power to control our Internet speed. They can use it for their business interests. For example they can give high speed for visiting Facebook and lower it for other sites. In short it will eliminate today’s freedom and Internet will no more be accessible to common man as ISPs start charging more for popular sites.