Freedom of connection with any application to any party is the fundamental social basis of the

internet. And now, is the basis of the society built on the internet

Vol. III, No. 22, 5 June 2015

Net Neutrality
The term was given by Columbia University professor Tim Wu in 2003. The internet will be most useful if all
content and sites are treated equally.Net neutrality means that the internet service providers and governments
should treat all data on the internet equally. We also call it as network neutrality, Internet neutrality, or net
equality. Net Neutrality is the Internets guiding principle: It preserves our right to communicate freely online.
This is the definition of an open Internet. Net Neutrality means an Internet that enables and protects free speech.
It means that Internet service providers should provide us with open networks and should not block or
discriminate against any applications or content that ride over those networks. Just as your phone company
shouldn't decide who you can call and what you say on that call, your ISP shouldn't be concerned with the
content you view or post online.

Without Net Neutrality, cable and phone companies could carve the Internet into fast and slow lanes. An ISP
could slow down its competitors' content or block political opinions it disagreed with. ISPs could charge extra fees
to the few content companies that could afford to pay for preferential treatment relegating everyone else to a
slower tier of service. This would destroy the open Internet.In recent times in India there is a case which is
highlighting the issue of net neutrality. The largest telecom operator has started a plan 'Airtel Zero' under which a
subscriber can surf the websites for free. On April 6th Airtel proposed the Airtel Zero, an open marketing
platform that was aimed at allowing users access to many mobile applications for free while the data charges
were proposed to be paid by the application providers.The marketing proposition was that Airtel wouldnt charge
consumers but instead charge the marketers who in turn would pay Airtel for hosting their mobile applications.
Customers would not have to pay for the data for using such applications. This initiative termed as unfair,
unjust, anti-small enterprises and it goes against the tenets of net neutrality.This will be difficult for the new
comers. New entries will be demotivated because they will find it difficult to establish themselves as a successful
business enterprise. It will make the website market very rigid because new innovations will not advance due to
lack in the large money pockets. If internet is not protected by law then big players can manipulate the
consumption of people. These companies can pay more to promote their websites and eventually we cannot use
the websites which are not able to pay the money to the telecom. The countries which have applied this law were
due to public initiative not government. Recently this topic is very trending amongst the users and most of the
people demand this law in effect.

On 27th march, 2015 TRAI had put up a consultation paper on its website asking viewers to give their views on
this till 24th April, 2015. More than one million applications were received by TRAI in support of this law. It is
clearly visible that the Net Neutrality Law is the demand of the public to protect their rights.


Written by: - Pooja Chaudhary
Faculty of Finance
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information is taken from sources believed to be reliable but is not guaranteed by Chitkara
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