Equality before internet

Adoption of net neutrality is a huge positive

The Telecom Commission’s acceptance of net neutrality rules will have far-reaching implications for the future of the internet in India. It will remain an open platform and internet service providers (ISPs) will be prohibited from practices such as blocking content, degrading speeds, slowing specific content, or granting differential speeds or treatment. A net-neutral regime, therefore, allows smaller businesses and individuals to create and disseminate content without fear that their offerings will be swamped by larger competitors, or throttled by ISPs. In that sense, net neutrality helps to promote innovation across the entire digital ecosystem. The necessity to ensure net neutrality is especially high in regions where there are few ISPs. This is true of certain parts of rural India, where coverage can be spotty. This decision, which comes within a month of the US nullifying its own net neutrality rules, reiterates India's firm commitment to a non-discriminatory net regime. In technical terms, it will require both monitoring of compliance as well as a willingness to accept consumer complaints and penalise operators who violate the rules.

In the past, telecom companies have often argued that a tightly regulated netneutral regime may stifle innovation. But it is hard to accept this argument for the simple reason that the internet has essentially been net-neutral for over two decades, and there has been plenty of visible innovation. However, a net-neutral regime does certainly restrict the freedom of telecom service providers to offer favourable terms to specific content providers, or app-developers, and it does cut down the potential for creating new revenue streams. Given India's hyper-competitive market, where telecom service providers have been struggling to generate enough revenues to service debts, tight net neutrality could be considered a restrictive approach. For example, under net neutrality, telecom service providers cannot offer “zero-rating” services where they charge surfers less to access specific websites or content run by partners. They also cannot favour their own digital payment banks over those of competitors. Nor is it possible to launch something such as Facebook's Free Basics, where the social media giant partnered various telecom service providers to offer free access to the Facebook ecosystem.

Another key element about the net neutrality regime is that certain critical services may be exempt from it. It is up to the government now to decide on services that deserve exceptional treatment by regulators. This is necessary so that exceptions are not used as loopholes by the big internet players. The exceptions may be justifiable in some cases. For example, emergency remote diagnostic and telemedical services may need to be fast-tracked. The same may also be necessary for disaster management or during crowd management situations such as pilgrimages. Critical high-tech services like the management of smart power grids could also require priority, and there may be new applications such as autonomous car communications or drone operations, which might merit priority. On the whole, this policy should boost innovation by helping to maintain a level-playing field across the digital landscape. That will enable everyone from small businesses to artists to create and offer content without fear of being stifled.