INDUSTRY | IN FOCUS Chandresh Dedhia [email protected]

Why

is Important for India

Let’s look at how the absence of can significantly arrest the growth of small business owners, start-ups, and entrepreneurs in India

et neutrality (also network neutrality, Inter- NET NEUTRALITY IN INDIA net neutrality, or net equality) is the principle As of 2014, India has no laws governing net neutrality. that Internet service providers and govern- There have already been a few violations of net neutrality ments should treat all data on the by some service providers. The Telecom Regula- equally, not discriminating or charging def- tory Authority of India (TRAI) is yet to form proper guide- Nerentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type lines regarding net neutrality. of attached equipment, or mode of communication. Also, net neutrality is the Internet’s guiding principle: It HISTORY IS INTERESTING! preserves our right to communicate freely online. This is In 2006, TRAI invited opinions regarding the regulation of the definition of an open Internet. net neutrality from various telecom industry bodies and

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stakeholders. Specifically, in December 2006, a consulta- November 2014: TRAI began investigating if Airtel was tion paper published by TRAI noted that even though the implementing preferential access by offering special Inter- Internet had been neutral since 1998, when private ISPs net packs which allowed WhatsApp and data were allowed to begin operations, the situation might at rates which were lower than its standard data rates. change in the future. Internet Service Providers may dis- December 2014: Airtel changed its service terms for criminate against competing applications and content 2G and 3G data packs so that VoIP data was excluded providers. This may affect services like Internet telephony. from the set amount of free data. A standard data charge The paper invited opinions from stakeholders on whether of 0.04 per 10 KB for 3G service and 0.10 per 10 KB (more regulatory intervention was required or whether it should than 10,000.00 for 1 GB) for 2G service was levied on be left to market forces. VoIP data. A few days later Airtel announced a separated In February 2012, at the World Mobile Congress held Internet pack for VoIP apps, it offered 75 MB for `75 with in Barcelona, the CEO of , Sunil Bharti Mit- a validity of 28 days. tal suggested that services like YouTube should pay an The TRAI Chief Rahul Khullar said that Airtel cannot be interconnect charge to network operators, saying that if held responsible for violating net neutrality because In- telecom operators are building highways for data then dia has no regulation that demands net neutrality. Airtel’s there should be a tax on the highway. move faced criticism on social networking sites like Face- In July 2012, Bharti Airtel’s Director of Network Servic- book, , and . es, Jagbir Singh suggested that large Internet companies December 29, 2014: Airtel announced that it would not like Facebook and should share revenues with tel- be implementing planned changes, pointing out that there ecom companies. According to him, Internet companies were reports that TRAI would be soon releasing a consul- were making big profits from small investments, whereas tation paper on the issue. the telecom companies were actually investing in building Rahul Khullar, TRAI Chairman, said that what Airtel tried networks. He also suggested that the telecom regulator to do was against net neutrality, but not illegal, as India should establish interconnection charges for data serv- had no law enforcing net neutrality. He added that TRAI ices, similar to those applied to voice calls. was preparing a consultation paper on regulating over- August 2012: reported that according to the-top (OTT) services to level the playing field. OTT firms data from M-Lab, You Broadband, Airtel, and BSNL were will have to apply for licenses and share revenue with the throttling BitTorrent traffic. government. February 2013: Killi Kruparani, Union Minister of State February 10, 2015: Facebook launched Internet.org in for Communications and Information Technology, said India with . It aims to provide that the government would look into the legality of VoIP free access to 38 websites through an app. Only Bing was services. The Chief General Manager of the state-run made available as the . Sunil Mittal, CEO of BSNL, V Srinivasan also said that services like are Bharti Airtel, criticised the concept and said, “If you are illegal. In June 2013, Bharti Airtel began offering certain going to make the data free, then let’s do completely phil- Google services for free to its cellular broadband users, anthropic projects. The government must make spectrum with a limit of 1 GB on the free data. free, there should be free network, but it is not happen- February 2014: Gopal Vittal, CEO of Airtel’s India op- ing.” erations, said that the companies offering free messaging March 27, 2015: TRAI released a consultation paper on apps like Skype, , and WhatsApp should be regulated OTT services and net neutrality for public feedback. similar to telecom operators. April 2015: Airtel announced the ‘’ scheme. August 2014: TRAI rejected a proposal from telecom Under the scheme, the app firms will sign a contract and companies to make messaging application firms share Airtel will provide the apps for free to its customers. part of their revenue with the carriers or the government. October 2014: ’s CEO Marten Pieters LEGALITY suggested that companies like Facebook and WhatsApp There are no laws enforcing net neutrality in India. Al- should be taxed to ensure a level playing field with tel- though TRAI guidelines for the Unified Access Service ecom operators. license promotes net neutrality, it does not enforce it. The

| A CyberMedia Publication www.dqindia.com May 15, 2015 | 13 INDUSTRY | IN FOCUS

target high commercial intent keywords, write compelling ads, and have these ads point at highly optimized landing pages. Awesome! Until your prospective customers click on your ad and their ISP throttles bandwidth to your landing pages be- cause you can’t afford to enter into a ‘preferential serv- ice agreement.’ Your landing pages take forever to load, and your conversion rates plummet. You’ve wasted time, money, and effort—all because your larger competitors can afford sleazy backhanders. Net neutrality is essential to consumer choice. If ISPs get to choose which sites are seen and when, millions of businesses—large and small alike—will suffer, and so will consumers.

NET NEUTRALITY IS A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD Content marketing has enabled businesses of all sizes to provide their customers with highly relevant content Information Technology Act, 2000 also does not prohibit tailored to meet specific needs, and the open web has companies from throttling their service in accordance allowed countless bloggers to build huge audiences by with their business interests. In India, telecom operators sharing content that they’re passionate about. This will be and ISPs offering VoIP services have to pay a part of their impossible if ISPs and large telcos get their way. revenues to the government. The preferential treatment that ISPs could (and would) charge for will tip the scale in favor of huge media com- WHY IS NET NEUTRALITY IMPORTANT FOR BUSINESSES? panies that can afford to pay for unrestricted access and Net neutrality is crucial for small business owners, start- marginalize everyone else. What about family-owned ups, and entrepreneurs, who rely on the open Internet to businesses that run great blogs and rely on quality con- launch their businesses, create a market, advertise their tent as a marketing tool? What about start-ups that have products and services, and distribute products to cus- built large audiences through niche content and special- tomers. We need the open Internet to foster job growth, ized knowledge? What about the blogs that break the competition, and innovation. news stories mainstream media outlets are afraid to touch Net neutrality lowers the barriers of entry for entrepre- because they’re owned by the same conglomerates as neurs, start-ups, and small businesses by ensuring the the ISPs? Oh, and forget about video marketing—unless web is a fair and level playing field. It’s because of net you have loads of cash to pay the gatekeepers of Internet neutrality that small businesses and entrepreneurs have (the Telecom Service Providers), it’s not going to happen. been able to thrive on the Internet. They use the Internet Search marketers are sometimes accused of being to reach new customers and showcase their goods, ap- reactionary and waiting to see what everyone else does plications, and services. before taking action. Don’t let this happen. Without net No company should be able to interfere with this open neutrality, search and Internet marketing will be changed marketplace. ISPs are by definition the gatekeepers to the forever—and the results won’t be pretty. Internet, and without net neutrality, they would seize every Unless the web remains free and open, content market- possible opportunity to profit from that gatekeeper con- ing as we know it will be finished. trol. Without net neutrality, the next Google would never get off the ground. Let’s say you run a small business. You have a great product, satisfied customers, and you’re ready to grow by getting into paid search. You launch a PPC campaign, The author is Head-IT, Fermenta Biotech

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