Subject: Net Neutrality
From: Shreyas -S- Bhide
Date: 03-Apr-15 12:16 PM
To: advqos@trai.gov.in

This mail is in support of complete net neutrality. The internet was designed and assigned as a place for free exchange and flow of knowledge and information. Don't allow differential pricing of services on the Internet & let the consumers choose how they want to use Internet.

At a time when India's internet penetration is already a lowly 20% as compared to many other developing and developed powers of the world, this a-la-carte plan of Internet full of restrictions and gateways will further stop India's Internet boom in its track. In today's day and age, if people cannot have access to free information, how is India supposed to become a superpower? What will we be banking on?

And this is not just about the Internet reach in India.

"It is also about stopping ‘positive discrimination’, such as when one internet operator favours one particular service over another. If we don’t explicitly outlaw this, we hand immense power to telcos and online service operators. In effect, they can become gatekeepers — able to handpick winners and the losers in the market and to favour their own sites, services and platforms over those of others. This would crowd out competition and snuff out innovative new services before they even see the light of day." - via the paper on FAQs: Internet Licensing and Net Neutrality.

Facebook and Google are today considered the most visited websites in the world today because their audience was uncorrupted. When telecom operators start controlling my access to the Internet, how will we trust these figures? What if XYZ website pays Airtel or Vodafone to block access to Facebook throughout India and becomes India's largest social networking website? How trustworthy would this claim be? Was Facebook given a fair chance? Was what XYZ did ethical or unethical / legal or illegal? How are we going to decide that?

Apart from a crackdown on basic freedom to use Internet, the telecom services' demands are a dent to the very functioning of the Internet and can give rise to many complexities, legal and.or otherwise, that turn all of the Web into one giant anarchy.

This is why such a policy should not be brought into policy. It makes no sense. And it holds no position in a democracy that allots its citizen freedom of choice and expression. I would request the TRAI and the govt. to look into this matter and support free Internet, for it holds the key to India's development and progress in the modern digital age.


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Regards,
Shreyas -S- Bhide