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Net neutrality issue to rock Parliament

Following an uproar over a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) proposal to regulate over-the-top internet services, like applications with the ability to make phone calls, the government has indicated that it will go by the opinion of the majority of people.

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Following an uproar over a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) proposal to regulate over-the-top internet services, like applications with the ability to make phone calls, the government has indicated that it will go by the opinion of the majority of people. The government has sought responses of people by April 24. The Opposition parties, however, on Tuesday called for ending this debate immediately, by scrapping of the TRAI consultation paper and also disband the committee set up by telecom ministry. Congress said it will raise the issue in Parliament forcefully when its sits again on April 20, keeping in view that India has 24.31 crore "Internet Users", out of which 17.30 crore are "Mobile Internet Users'.

While, the BJP evaded expressing its view on net neutrality, saying the government has already set up a committee to look into the matter, Congress said the phenomenal technological revolution was leading to an unholy greed to profiteer by telecom and internet service providers. "The attempt to discriminate between apps and services is proposed with the sole agenda to make more money," said Congress leader Ajay Maken.

Maken reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Modi himself uses social media platform to convey his political message. But said his actions were at variance and aimed at helping corporate engaged in telecom services by allowing them to control the internet and profit from it. The party demanded the government should issue policy directions to the TRAI and scrap its 118-page consultation paper and also disband the committee set up by Telecom ministry. Under Section 25 of the TRAI Act 1997, the government has powers to issue any direction to TRAI in the interest of public.

The TRAI consultation paper calls suggestions on whether over-the-top services, like applications with the ability to make phone calls, which are delivered over the Internet by telecom operators and ISPs, should be licensed or regulated.

The regulator has asked stakeholders to send in suggestions by April 24 while counter-arguments need to be submitted by May 8. The TRAI consultation paper coincides with the recent plans of telcos such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications to offer some apps for free to their users. While telcos argue that they are not giving preferential treatment to any app or service, critics point out that the companies are paying telcos for providing apps free to customers.

The net neutrality issue has been fiercely debated overseas as well. After an uproar, the US administration had asked that service providers to treat all data on the internet equally and not impose differential pricing or discriminate between users, content sites, platforms and apps. Last April, European Parliament also voted against a two-tiered Internet. The proposal is currently before the European council of ministers for ratification.

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