The government could disallow controversial 'zero rating' plans floated by companies in its final policy on net neutrality but could make an exemption for delivery of essential government services such as education and health on a preferential basis.
"Zero rating plans that involve commercial arrangements at the back-end violate the idea of net neutrality as they seem to provide discriminatory access to certain apps," a senior telecom department official told ET.
The telecom department has set up an six-member committee headed by Member Technology AK Bhargava, which has to submit a report on net neutrality by the end of the month.
The committee is yet to submit its final recommendation but an official aware of its thinking told ET that the members broadly concur on the definition of net neutrality in the Indian context. The committee's current thinking is that any definition of net neutrality must maintain core principles, which is not to allow blocking, prioritisation and throttling of content providers on a network.
"However, it is of the view that the definition (of net neutrality) should not be at cross-purposes with the government's policy," another official told ET. The upshot is that essential services such as e-governance, as envisaged in the 'Digital India' plan, should be delivered on a preferential basis to end-users. "The policy will allow for positive discrimination," the person added.
The telecom commission will examine the report along with recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the subject before it finalises its stand. The final policy will then be vetted by the telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
According to sources, the DoT committee, set up in January this year, has met over 45 organisations including Facebook, Google, Flipkart, Amazon, Cleartrip, Paytm, Viber and Skype, apart from telecom service providers and various public interest groups in the last few months. "A few members of the committee have so far made a presentation to the telecom minister explaining rules on net neutrality worldwide," the person added.
"Zero rating plans that involve commercial arrangements at the back-end violate the idea of net neutrality as they seem to provide discriminatory access to certain apps," a senior telecom department official told ET.
The telecom department has set up an six-member committee headed by Member Technology AK Bhargava, which has to submit a report on net neutrality by the end of the month.
The committee is yet to submit its final recommendation but an official aware of its thinking told ET that the members broadly concur on the definition of net neutrality in the Indian context. The committee's current thinking is that any definition of net neutrality must maintain core principles, which is not to allow blocking, prioritisation and throttling of content providers on a network.
"However, it is of the view that the definition (of net neutrality) should not be at cross-purposes with the government's policy," another official told ET. The upshot is that essential services such as e-governance, as envisaged in the 'Digital India' plan, should be delivered on a preferential basis to end-users. "The policy will allow for positive discrimination," the person added.
The telecom commission will examine the report along with recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the subject before it finalises its stand. The final policy will then be vetted by the telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
According to sources, the DoT committee, set up in January this year, has met over 45 organisations including Facebook, Google, Flipkart, Amazon, Cleartrip, Paytm, Viber and Skype, apart from telecom service providers and various public interest groups in the last few months. "A few members of the committee have so far made a presentation to the telecom minister explaining rules on net neutrality worldwide," the person added.
Source:-The Economic Times
No comments:
Post a Comment