Report on Net neutrality by mid-May: Prasad

Amidst controversies and debates around Net neutrality on various social networking sites, the Central government on Monday said that it would soon come out with a report on the matter.

The report is expected to come out on May 8.

Speaking to media, Telecom and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is holding extensive consultations on the issue and its report is awaited.

Prasad said that the report will be discussed with the stakeholders subsequently.

“TRAI has to send the report to us and I have asked them to send it by second week of May. TRAI being an advisory body, their advice is certainly entitled to our respect, which I am awaiting,” Prasad said.

The Minister, in January had constituted a Committee headed by six senior government officials to prepare a report on the whole array of Net neutrality – objective, its benefits, advantages and disadvantages – including all regulatory and technical issues.

Declining to comment on what is expected from this report, Prasad said, “Internet to become entirely global should have a link to the local and when we talk of digital inclusion it must be available to the under-privileged and on the margins.”

Countries such as the US, Chile, the Netherlands and Brazil have already adopted Net neutrality. Net neutrality has been widely debated issue globally and in the recent past reached India wherein it caught attention of politicians, corporate leaders, actors and internet activists on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Net neutrality implies equal treatment be accorded to all internet traffic and no priority should be given to any person or entity or company based on payment, which is seen as discriminatory.

A trigger for this attention was launch of Bharti Airtel’s ‘Airtel Zero’ plan an open marketing platform that allows customers to access a variety of mobile applications for free, with the data charges being paid by start-ups and large companies.

It led to debate people saying the product violates principles of Net neutrality saying while it will promote some apps or websites, others won’t get such priority when it comes to speed of Internet, especially when one wants to visit a competitor’s website.

Various political parties had demanded that impartiality should be ensured in the internet.

The Aam Aadmi Party said it believes that the internet should not be divided for Aam (common) and Khaas (special) users, consumers or service providers and stands by the principle of net neutrality.

“We hope that the citizens of India and their demand for Net neutrality will be joined by all political parties, telecom service providers, start-ups, businesses and every corporation, consortium or company that believes that the all traffic on the internet should be treated equally and ensure that users are able to access all websites at the same speed and cost without preferential treatment of any website or service over the other,” the Aam Aadmi Party said in a statement.

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