Dear TRAI,

This mail is to express my concern against the actions that telecom carriers are taking to restrict fair access to the internet (Internet Neutrality). I believe the internet is a vital resource - it helps me communicate, work, and thrive as a citizen. If telecom operators can discriminate internet traffic on the basis of which services pay the most, we are allowing telcos control over a vital and necessary technological resource. By doing so we allow them to define what information we can view; what entertainment we can access; and how companies can innovate.

Now imagine that the water distribution companies could have done any and all of these things all along - but chose not to. Now they get jealous of these other businesses - and want to be allowed to charge soft-drink users and water-park visitors any fee, without any logic, without it being based on water usage.

Another analogy. Imagine if your electricity distribution companies - Tata or Reliance / BSES or whoever would suddenly get up and start charging more for electricity from you if you used efficient light bulbs, or if you were used appliances that consumed less electricity. Because they made less money as a result of your smartness.

This is completely unfair and harms India's long term role in the global market. I strongly believe the growth of telecoms and the well-being of the internet can go hand-in-hand. We should be charged based on the volume of internet data we consume, by fair means. I want my generation and those that come after me to have unfettered access to the Internet, with no telcos or ISPs having the ability to charge for specific services I use on top of it. Please understand that the internet is an important resource and vital to me and to every other Indian citizen. I would like to see it kept free and protected under Internet Neutrality to ensure fair and equal access for all and forever.

--Vivek Dhayaal