What is Net Neutrality? What We Should Do to Save Internet in India?

Would you pay an extra Rs 200 to get access to this article on thelogicalindian.com? Or even just Rs 20? What if you could access Facebook for free, but LinkedIn cost a little more? If people were charged extra to watch Vimeo videos, what are the chances you would upload your short film there instead of YouTube? It might be somewhat simplistic to reduce the entire net neutrality debate to a matter of rupees, but the point these situations illustrate is pertinent: without net neutrality, your internet is not going to be the same.

India’s telecom regulator is gearing up to change the relationship between the internet and its users. In a paper it put out last month, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India made it clear that it is all set to allow telecom companies to turn the internet from an all-you-can-eat buffet into an a la carte menu. Read Medianama’s useful distillation of the paper here.

But the decision hasn’t been made yet. TRAI’s consultation paper also includes 20 questions posed to the industry and the general public, asking for comments on what India’s internet regulation should look like. Since you are reading this on the internet, and probably want to continue using it, here’s a primer on this policy that will affect all of our lives.

How Consultation Process Works

The public has been asked 20 questions based on above 2 points. You have to send mail to a TRAI email ID with answers to these questions. You can do this till April 24, 2015. Time will be provided for counter comments from April 24th to May 8th.

To make sure that anti net neutrality rules aren’t formed in India, we need your help.You need to send a mail to TRAI mail id [email protected] in support of net neutrality and against differential pricing/speeds

If TRAI does not get enough public mails in support of Net Neutrality, this is what you can expect:-
You will have different packages for accessing internet.

1. 1 GB data for Rs 252 + Rs 50 for Google + Rs 25 for facebook and so on.
2. 1 GB data pack would be like the base pack of your DTH.

But you will have to add packs for carrier decided pricing to be able to use all apps.

Isn’t this SCARY? Its just the start!

You can make a difference!

You can make a difference.If you choose to stay silent today thinking that things will eventually sort out, they won’t.
You will have to pay for Youtube, Gaana.com etc. like TV packages.

Do you want this? If not, then please support us. Here’s what you can do to help:

Go read the reddit India thread on net neutrality. Visit Netneutrality.in, which will tell you how to lobby the prime minister. Sign thechange.org petition, which already has 80,000 signatures, asking for net neutrality to be enforced. Go assist Medianama in their efforts tocreate responses to the TRAI consultation paper. Or go respond to TRAI yourself.

Go to change.org petition and sign up to save Internet.

Please raise your voice by signing up the petition in large numbers, tweeting about net neutrality and sending mails to TRAI before April 24th.

Source: Scroll.in, Netneutrality.in