Net neutrality is the debate in India today

Net neutrality is the debate in India today

In net neutrality, differentiation is fine, discrimination is not we can differentiate based on what kind of content it is but if you discriminated based on who the content is for that is not fine.

Amid the ongoing debate over net neutrality, the major issue is that everyone has their own definitions of it. “The big problem is the term net neutrality is very confusing everyone seems to have their own definition. People talks to telecom companies who say we are for net neutrality. But what they implement may not be what others people call net neutrality. There is whole activist movement in India who have their version of Net neutrality.” Facebook may have two definition of net neutrality, one which applies for whatsapping into the issue. The committees has already in previous meeting taken note of the operators and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI).

Unfortunately, the definition of net neutrality is not very crisp and precise. And people conflate issues when they talk about network neutrality. People often say the principle of network neutrality is that all packets should be treated equally. The internet has never been neutral in the sense. Packets are not treated equally and that is fine. A packet is the unit of data that is routed between origin and destination on the internet.

Internet service providers or telecom firms should not provide competitive advantage to certain individual apps or services based on either quality of service or pricing. That is what Net Neutrality is. In Net neutrality, differentiation is fine, discrimination is not. You can differentiate based on what kind of content it is, but if you discrimination based on who the content is for that is not fine. The TRAI had received over 1 million comments on its paper over net neutrality with majority demanding implementation of ideal net neutrality.

Net neutrality calls for equal treatment to all internet traffic without any priority treatment to an entity or company on the basis of payment for content or service providers such as telecom companies, which is seems as discriminatory.