Explainer / What is net neutrality?

More than any other invention of our time, the Internet has unlocked possibilities we could just barely imagine a generation ago. 

The Internet has transformed the world and society like never before. It has provided a platform for new opportunities through innovation. The Internet has fostered the supremacy of ideas rather than capital.

It is a universal platform that uses the same standards in every country, so that every user can connect to every other user with physical distances becoming irrelevant in the networked world. 

Concerns have been raised globally as well as in India relating to the potential for discriminatory treatment of Internet traffic by the entities that control access to the Internet. These concerns regarding non-discriminatory access have become the centre of a global policy debate, often referred to as “net neutrality”.

What is net neutrality?

• Net neutrality generally refers to the idea that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) 
should neither control how consumers use their networks nor discriminate among the content providers that use their networks.

• It is understood as a network principle of equal treatment of data packets moving across the IP networks. 

• Users can access any legal website or web service without any interference from an ISP.

• It means ensuring that all end users are able to access the Internet content, applications and services of their choice at the same level of service quality, speed and price, with no priority or degradation based on the type of content, applications or services.

• Net neutrality has been built into the fabric of the Internet since its creation.

• The concept has been used more broadly to describe the open and non-discriminatory access to the Internet.

How is it different from the concept of ‘Open Internet’?

• Net neutrality is often misunderstood as akin to the concept of ‘Open Internet’, which is a much larger all-encompassing description. 

• Open Internet is the idea that the full resources of the Internet and the means to operate on it are easily accessible to all individuals and businesses. Open Internet is not limited to network operations alone but includes Internet governance, open standards and protocols, transparency, absence of censorship, and low barriers to entry. 

• Open Internet is expressed as an expectation of decentralised technological power equally exercisable across the user community, and is seen by some as closely related to open-source software. 

• Proponents often see net neutrality as an important component of an Open Internet, where policies such as equal treatment of data and open web standards allow those on the Internet to easily communicate with each other without interference from a third party. 

• Open and non-discriminatory access to the Internet has revolutionised the way people communicate and collaborate, entrepreneurs and corporations conduct business, and governments and citizens interact. This has led to rapid growth in people-to-people, business-to-people and government-to-people communications shaping new forms of social interactions, businesses and governance. 

• Thereby, Internet has emerged as a fount of innovation in all aspects of human life facilitated by the open, easy, inexpensive and non-discriminatory access to the Internet and the related investments in constructing high speed networks enabling the explosion in data traffic to be carried. 

• The debate on net neutrality has sprung from the desire to preserve and protect the open nature of the public Internet arising from the apprehensions of emerging new business models that may impinge on the inherent characteristics of the Internet. 

Net neutrality rules in India

• Internet Access Services need to be governed by a principle that restricts any form of discrimination, restriction or interference in the treatment of content, including practices like blocking, degrading, slowing down or granting preferential speeds or treatment to any content. 

• To ensure that the regulatory framework on net neutrality adheres to the fundamental principles and concepts of net neutrality, the policy directives on net neutrality have been issued.

• The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) constituted a committee on January 19, 2015 to examine the issue of net neutrality. 

• The Committee observed few contextual trends that impinge on its recommendations, namely the developmental objectives of government enunciated through ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ and the need to foster innovation and investments. To achieve these developmental objectives, the Internet — that is open, democratic, affordable and non-discriminatory — will play a critical infrastructural role.

• TRAI released its regulation ‘Prohibition of discriminatory tariffs for data services, Regulations, 2016’ on February 8, 2016 which prohibits any service provider from offering or charging discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content. 

• In November 2017, TRAI provided to DoT its recommendations on net neutrality. 

• In July 2018, the Telecom Commission approved net neutrality rules which bar service providers from discriminating against Internet content and services by blocking, throttling or granting them higher speed access.

• Subsequently, DoT amended the Unified License for Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) and Unified License (Virtual Network Operators) and Unified Access Service License Agreement to incorporate the principles of non-discriminatory treatment of content in September 2018 and issued an amendment in internet service provider license for Regulatory Framework on Net Neutrality in May 2019.

• DoT sent a reference to TRAI on July 31, 2018 seeking recommendations on ‘Traffic Management Practices’ (TMPs) and multi-stakeholder body for net neutrality. TRAI provided its recommendation on the subject on September 22, 2020. The recommendations of TRAI are under examination.

• Technical audit of Internet Service Providers, which includes technical information about the network, upstream and downstream bandwidth, tariff plans, etc, is being done annually.

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