Department of Telecom invites comments
on Committee report on net neutrality
The Department of Telecommunications constituted a committee chaired by Mr. A. K. Bhargava (member of Telecom Commission) on January 19, 2015 to examine the issue of net neutrality. The Committee submitted its report in May 2015 and has invited comments on it till August 15, 2015.16 Net neutrality relates to equal and non-discriminatory access to the internet, for consumers. Some of the key recommendations of the Committee are: The core principles of net neutrality should be adhered to. International best practices need to be considered while formulating an India specific net neutrality approach. OTT services enhance consumer welfare and increase productivity. These services should be actively encouraged. There should be a separation of the application layer (OTT services) from the network layer (Telecom Service Providers or TSPs) as application services are delivered over a licensed framework. Regulatory instruments should not be used to interfere with specific OTT communication services which deal with messaging. A liberal approach may be adopted regarding international voice-over-internet telephony (VoIP) calling services. However, in case of domestic calls, TSP and OTT communication services may be treated similarly for regulatory purposes. For other OTT services there is no case for prescribing regulatory oversight. Legitimate traffic management by TSPs should be allowed but tested against the core principles of net neutrality. Applicationagnostic congestion control cannot be considered to be against net neutrality. The core principles of net neutrality should be made part of license conditions. Tariff will be regulated by TRAI and a cell in the Department of Telecom should be set up to deal with net neutrality related issues.
The Department of Telecommunications constituted a committee chaired by Mr. A. K. Bhargava (member of Telecom Commission) on January 19, 2015 to examine the issue of net neutrality. The Committee submitted its report in May 2015 and has invited comments on it till August 15, 2015.16 Net neutrality relates to equal and non-discriminatory access to the internet, for consumers. Some of the key recommendations of the Committee are: The core principles of net neutrality should be adhered to. International best practices need to be considered while formulating an India specific net neutrality approach. OTT services enhance consumer welfare and increase productivity. These services should be actively encouraged. There should be a separation of the application layer (OTT services) from the network layer (Telecom Service Providers or TSPs) as application services are delivered over a licensed framework. Regulatory instruments should not be used to interfere with specific OTT communication services which deal with messaging. A liberal approach may be adopted regarding international voice-over-internet telephony (VoIP) calling services. However, in case of domestic calls, TSP and OTT communication services may be treated similarly for regulatory purposes. For other OTT services there is no case for prescribing regulatory oversight. Legitimate traffic management by TSPs should be allowed but tested against the core principles of net neutrality. Applicationagnostic congestion control cannot be considered to be against net neutrality. The core principles of net neutrality should be made part of license conditions. Tariff will be regulated by TRAI and a cell in the Department of Telecom should be set up to deal with net neutrality related issues.
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