I am sure most of you might have heard about Net Neutrality that’s been in the news for quite some time. Just like we have freedom of speech, Net Neutrality is all about freedom of net usage. The network operators should not discriminate between content – all content should get equal rights (i.e. speed and accessibility).
The telecom lobby are pressuring the Indian Government to regulate a framework to slow down things that affect their revenue. Take for example the mobile operators in India – Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, etc – etc. now these telecom companies were earning more with less user subscription over 5 to 10 years ago and now even with more subscription they are not earning as much as they should.
So what happened?
All these telecom companies are providing call, data and other services. The data services are hitting them hard. With more and more consumers using Facebook, Messaging, Twitter, Whatsapp etc, they have minimized the use of other services that are being offered – for example SMS’s – The SMS usage has reduced considerably ever since Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp evolved. And now Whatsapp has started offering voice calls using data networks.
With more and more consumer using data services the telecom operators are getting uncomfortable as it is hitting their revenue (I don’t think that is too much). The TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) are thinking if it is feasible to have a licensing for over the top apps and should operators be allowed to shape the traffic as per their needs.
In simple words they will decide what will be viewable / accessible when using their data networks, they can block certain services like WhatsApp, Viber etc that could hurt their revenue. The operators might also charge extra for Voice over IP services or ask the companies like WhatsApp / Skype to pay charges to telecom companies.
TRAI has asked Citizens to express their views you can find more details at TRAI Website.
Internet is all about freedom; it’s open and free and it should be that way. Speak out, share this article and comment below.
Want to make a difference check savetheinternet.in and netneutrality.in.
Madhan Kumar
@Gogi: Pls post an article asap for saving Net Neutrality as our Indian Govt is seeking final comments(already 33k cmts until now) which are opened only till today i.e August 15th check here for more details: https://mygov.in/group-issue/give-your-comments-or-suggestions-recommendations-committee-net-neutrality/
User’s will hav to just create an account for giving their responses on Saving Internet Freedom in our India.
Pls don’t ignore this as it’s a big issue if we don’t respond now then we will feel later,hope u understand so pls do spread this issue asap,thanks in Advance!
AN¡LKeraLa
My tweet to NDTV Cellguru team who were campaigning for same Net Neutrality 🙂
Ain’t ‘Airtel Zero’ same concept like Reliance & Internet.org doing right now ? If internet.org is good, how Zero not good ? Reliance users can now use facebook & some other sites free through internet.org. Likewise Airtel users can use some sites and apps for free. Isn’t ‘Airtel Zero’ Airtel’s version of internet.org concept ? Explain how Airtel Zero is different and bad and internet.org is good, all of a sudden !
ismail
ur answer is there in a youtube video mate.. airtel zero might allow fast access to its preferred site for example a online buying portal and then very slow access to its opponent online portal. the customer wud be fed up searching the product in opponents portal, hence will buy airtel preferred site
AN¡LKeraLa
Whose video ? AIB ? It’s just rumours if AIB video is you’re talking about. As far as I know, Other than people can browse free, no special charges or special speed limit for other sites.
AN¡LKeraLa
This’s also something to be read. http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/net-neutrality-debate-its-not-just-limited-to-airtel-zero/
H
http://www.savetheinternet.in ..just go to this link and support net neutrality..otherwise for our this discussion also telecom company ask for revenue ( say:- taking revenue for gogi.in too :p)
Arun
Hats off to gogi rana for the net neutrality movement!
anurag
मित्रों यह अंकीय (digital) भारत की दिशा में पहला कदम है
…मित्रों यह हमारा सपना है की पूरा भारत इंटरनेट का उपयोग करे…
मित्रों लगता है आपलोगों ने हमारे कथन का गलत मतलब निकल लिया है…हमने उपयोग करने के लिए कहा था…. क्या और कैसे उपयोग करना है वो आपका निर्णय नहीं है वो तो हम बताएँगे।
माफ़ करिये मित्रों हम नहीं वो अम्बानी / बिड़ला एवं मित्तल बंधू बताएँगे….और हम आपलोगो को बता देंगे।
हमने तो पहले ही कहा था की “सबका साथ सबका विकास”
आपलोगो ने फिर से इसका गलत अर्थ निकल लिया…इस्कॉ मतलब है आपलोगो के साथ से कुछलोगो का विकास।
आप कितनी भी चिट्ठी लिखें … हम तो इसे लागु करवा के ही रहेंगे….. फिर जब आप लोग ज्यादा चिल्लल्ल–पों मचाएंगे तब हम मसीहा की तरह आकर जैसा था वैसा था कर देंगे केवल इंटरनेट पे वौइस् कालिंग और वेत्सप्प का अलग से पैसा देना पड़ेगा.
अब खुश… यही तो सब चाहते हैं…फ्लिपकार्ट , न्यूज़ एप्प और अमेज़न को तो सिर्फ वजन बढ़ने के लिए रखा गया है।
**याद है न कुछ साल पहले कैसे पेट्रोल का दाम 2 रुपैया बढ़ाते थे और जब आपलोग हंगामा करते थे तो 50 पैसा कम कर देते थे…..मित्रों यहाँ भी कुछ वैसा ही है ।
अब नमस्कार मित्रों ….धन्यवाद
Pushkar Kathayat
Already telecom companies have drastically increased the rate of net packs in India more than 200%. Now when they are seeing they are not getting the revenue as expected they are seeking for other things. They have to accept that it is the internet world and should accept the situation rather than strike their head over and over for new things. The situation can not be same as it is 10 years ago. As in those days internet service is not so much popular
dharit
How d hell this telecom operators just think about profit, we have highest tariff rates for 3G or 2G packages, no 4G still and network for 3G is pathetic ..the world is using 5G or advanced and we still stuck with 2G and in that also they want to regulate apps…disgusting.
rajeev
It is a new fad caught from USA. What applies to those fat cats doesn’t apply here. People are aping others like a sheep. There is nothing like neutrality ever.
If people are getting cheap internet on mobiles by whatever deals companies make among themselves one has no business interfering in it.
Internet activists didn’t really thought this through and simply just getting caught up with it.
Don’t waste your time people.
Zeeshan
You know nothing Jon Snow
Go watch AIB: Save the internet video.
Also if you think that people are getting cheap internet you are wrong. It isn’t cheap but the rest is paid by the big companies who are breaking NN.
Also, just FYI USA has passed a NN law
rajeev
Lol.
What you know is what you read. Really not applied your mind.
Somebody who gets is info from AIB is not worth having a discussion.
shivaji
@Rajeev then why you are discussing? An self-proclaimed expert like You should not spend your time here. Excuse us expert.
Zeeshan
I suggested you to watch the AIB video because it is good at explaining NN. Also FYI they brought the experts in the matter and had a discussion about the OTT paper TRAI and based on that the video was made “under supervision of Experts”. This was not a sole AIB idiots project.
And I know about this movement since its birth at Reddit India community.
prasath
If they block us then wifi is only way. But you cannot always carry wifi outside /public places.
Shivam
If they blocked services like whatsapp, situation for them will become worse coz people will avoid their service and like to go with Broadband Connection. Btw, no worries whatever they do. I use WiFi.
Madhan Kumar
Lolz, bro the same shame thing will be implemented later (first for gsm and cdma services) by them in broadband, wifi and whatsoever which comes under the word internet just to increase their revenues. Pls do some google search about this issue and know what exactly is going on!
ismail
I do support net neutrality but we should also think of other effects it might cause, for example these telecom heavyweights now have to forgo their calling and sms income if voice internet calls r permitted. so they will resort to either banning them or else considerably increasing the price of data charges. 1gb 3g data cost will be raised to 500rs from 250rs, so which one is better? I myself can’t decide….
Zeeshan
If that happens I will gladly make the jump to other Telco Provider, heck even BSNL
Madhan Kumar
The fact is that even if we share this big issue on social media platforms,these people(including my frnds) never ever care(but what hurts me is that if a girl uploads a selfie in fb, within just a few secs there will be many responses, but when it comes to a social cause the response will be extremely very less) and also the other reason may be they don’t know what is Net neutrality.
Even T.V media has taken sides and seems like they too have been bribed in order to keep their mouth shut. These people will start barking only after it gets implemented in a wider scale. I don’t what else a common man can do to go against these Greedy Corporate Companies?
Prithish
This is what I would have posted.. Read my mind..
Madhan Kumar
Ha,ha same feelings. Stay strong and have belief we can stop them together!
tanvir
I think TRAI should let the mobile network companies make charges for using facebook or whatsapp for the customers. See they have indeed kept the call charges, data charges ,messaging charges low for a long period of time when you can easily see the price of other daily essentials rise to peak due to inflation. The companies are charging the least for the services(also due to competition from other companies).
This year spectrum auction has crossed more than Rs 1,00,000 Crore (a record high). So you see each companies such as Idea or Airtel have to pay more or less 5000 Crore a month!! It is natural they may want to put charge or ban Face book or Whatsapp etc to prevent their company from running bankruptcy.
It’s true that internet is undoubtedly essential in modern day, but excess or unlimited internet is unnecessary luxury and may be harmful to life. Internet should be used mainly for necessity not luxury and the so called social networking(living in virtual world) addiction should be avoid these the modern youth keep in mind. We all are quite aware how bad the internet addiction is; we read in news examples such as a mother forgetting to bring her child from school as she was so drowned in Facebook,married couples not speaking a word to gather as they are engulfed using their mobiles and so on, other deleterious use of internet are hacking, pornography,cyber crimes etc. So be a responsible Indian use internet wisely and limited.
Madhan Kumar
Man, Telecom Looting Giants like Airtel,Vodafone and Idea are greedy notorious so that they make money even out of shits.Definitely they are not in losses even though they have spent a heafty sum on buying spectrum in the recently concluded spectrum auctions. They will easily make money within in the next 2yrs more than the money they spent on buying the spectrum. Just because of some people getting ridiculously addicted to social platforms you can’t just give your vote in favour of Telecom companies to ban/regulate Social apps.
For Example what will you do when Airtel says first visit “Olx” for no reason then only you will be able to visit a “govt website”? They will do anything they want just to increase their revenues like they will choose a time when you could open a site, just for an Example say Govt websites will only be accessible starting from 9 A.M to 5 P.M if incase you want to access govt website after 5P.M then u should visit Olx for no reason in order to get redirected to the appropriate govt website. In simple words,Consumer should always be the king in deciding what he/she should do with his own data pack,not the Greedy Telecom operators!
Hrishikesh
Absolutely true!!
amole
Telecom companies spend crores and crores of rupees on advertising daily and you are the only person on this whole planet who thinks that these companies are at loss. Hats off to your thinking.
sachin11
@tanvir, spectrum licence is given for 20 years and not for one year. So get your facts right. All telecom companies together will pay 5000 crore per year and not per month as you are saying. This amount is is not even 25% net profit they earn. Companies earn at least 4 times more then this.
rajeev
Tanvir, good post.
These 5 star (haha) activists have no time to research anything. Mobile charges (Not including data) are cheapest in the world. How these telcos makeup for their loss in revenues is their business strategy.
The sheep got caught in this neutrality nonsense thing and if they become successful in browbeating (5star style) the TRAI it will increase common man services like mobile calls and sms charges.
One doesn’t need much brains to hop on to the latest cool issue and feel worthwhile.