Subject: Opinion regarding Net neutrality
From: Binoy Nambiar
Date: 07-Apr-15 12:48 PM
To: advqos@trai.gov.in


Dear sir,

I am Binoy Nambiar, living in Surat. I am hereby presenting some of my views regarding Net neutrality and the concerns around it. I seriously hope this helps TRAI in formulating a just policy for the betterment for Indian people.


The infrastructure of the current 2G and 3G networks was built based on the demand for voice calls, due to which the  telegram and telegraph had to be shut down the past year by the postal service. Similarly landline phones are also getting low number of users due to the mobility provided by mobile phones. Same I'd the situation, except currently, the ball is not in the phone operator's court.

Internet should be classified as a resource and public utility, like water and electricity.

As far as the framework for operations for OTT players are concerned, framework can be established, but it should not restrict access to content i.e. It should only concern the operation and management of the services and not the content directly. This includes the argument for bringing the OTT players under licencing regime, which is, their content provision and servicing must not be regulated. But their operations must be regulated e.g whether they are committing crimes of corruption, pollution etc.

The increase in data revenue may be sufficient to cover the impact of loss of revenue due to OTT. But this is the company's job to plan according to the future demand and not do business being dumb.

The pricing for OTT players can be done, but not based on the bandwidth that will be required. If the pricing is done based on bandwidth, there must be floor for the number of users or the bandwidth or both, above which only the OTT needs to pay. The floor must be substantially high to support the lower players in a competitive environment. It must be the job of regulator of this law provider to check for misuses of this law.

It has been so far true that the OTT environment is unregulated, and this absence of regulation has spurred creativity in many areas. Internet must not be regulated.

Regarding the security of the services, it must be mandated to use internet servers in India for such purposes, and only a minor part must be outside the country. Then the regulation and management will be easy. This will create a new market for internet server providers.

There is no need for a context while considering Net neutrality. It must be neutral at al times.

Hope to stop companies from destroy Net soon.