Net Neutrality: A Demand for justice

The best thing about being neutral and not believing or disbelieving in anything is that the
nature reveals the truth in front of you automatically. Before leaning towards the topic lets
understand the true meaning of neutrality. Let us begin by answering some simple
questions.
Should the toll charged by an expressway be higher for a Beetle than for a Santro? Should
power utility charge higher rates for the power used by a merchant banking office, where
high-value deals are shaped, than for the power consumed by a sarkari office? Should a
telecom service provider charge a stock broker taking an order from a client more than a
call that exchanges gossip? All youll say after this is a single word, i.e. NO. And youre
absolutely right about it. All cars pay the same toll. Commercial power costs the same per
unit whether used in a fancy restaurant or a barber shop. Calls are metered and charged per
minute, whether they commiserate over the dear departed or exchange sweet nothings. I
assume that you have started thinking about what was the purpose of asking these
questions. I am here to discuss about the broader meaning of neutrality and justice through
Net Neutrality. So what is Net Neutrality?? Some government policy? Or a political agenda?
No, Net neutrality is the principle that ISPs and Government should treat all the data
equally. There will be no discrimination between two sites, or no website would be favored
over other. This means, all websites can co-exist without hampering others. All websites are
accessible at the same speed and no particular website of application is favoured. Fairness,
Openness & the freedom are the three principles which make internet the most powerful
medium of todays time. Net neutrality ensures that these principles remain intact, and
everyone gets a fair chance to grow and sustain.
Why is it important you ask?
Would you like to pay extra for using Whatsapp? Or would you like to pay extra for watching
YouTube videos? If not, then pay attention to what I am about to tell you. Net neutrality
demands the same principle of neutrality for all kinds of internet traffic. But telecom service
providers who double up as internet service providers (ISPs) want to charge different
users different rates.
Simplistic comparison? Absolutely. Unlike a toll plaza that collects toll from vehicles, the ISP
operates in a two-sided market. On one side, the ISP offers consumers access to the
internet, offering different rates for different speeds and different volumes of data. On the
other side, a range of content and application service providers stand poised to offer the
ISP different charges to accelerate consumer access to their own offerings and to slow
down, if not kill, access to their rivals. It will be totally YOUR CHOICE-whether you are
searching a girls name on facebook or sending a very important official mail-it is your
choice to not be governed by the whims and wishes of different service providers. It is your
choice and not your service providers choice to control How you use your 1GB 3G data
pack!!. Strict Net Neutrality demands that this second market be non-operational, in the
larger interest of society.
Now I see a question popping up in your mind-What if there is NO net neutrality?

How would you react when you have to deal with an extremely slow speed? Continuously
watching that loading sign-its irritating! That will change the way you used to access the
internet, with the reduced bandwidth and lots of blockages. The ISP will charge more if you
want to shop on some e-commerce website other than whats provided by that service
provider. And there would be package plans that could sure burn holes in your pocket! The
situation will be very much similar to an electricity provider who is already charging for the
electric current entering your house but also wants money from the fridge-maker, fanmaker, TV maker, etc. And if they dont give the money, the electricity provider will start
charging the consumer additionally for using fridge, fan and TV. If the consumer doesnt
pay, he will not get current for fridge, fan or TV. This is the basic argument. Such selective
supply is difficult for electric current but very easy for internet. Net neutrality seeks to treat
internet as electricity. Internet Service Providers can charge for the access to service but not
for how the consumer uses that service.
You might have heard this news before Mark Zuckerberg launched Internet.org bringing free
Internet to more than 100 million residents. The idea of free internet & free Facebook access
sounded so good, that we under-looked the biggest problem. We didnt pay attention to
many questions such as:
Which all sites will get free access via Internet.org?
How can a good site be included? Or a good site gone rogue will be excluded?
Who decides site to be included in the internet.org list?
We agree that some Internet access is better than none, and if that is what Internet.org
actually providedfor example, through a uniformly rate-limited or data-capped free service
then it would have our full support. But it doesn't. Instead, it continues to impose
conditions and restraints that not only make it something less than a true Internet service,
but also endanger people's privacy and security.
The launch of Internet.org was counter-intuitive to the net-neutrality in India, and many
questions are still unanswered.
Offering access to some applications and services at zero data charge, as Airtel and
Facebook want to, is anticompetitive. If Google could be paid off to hide Flipkart while an
online shopper searches for e-commerce sites, Amazon would be extremely happy. But the
search engine cannot operationalize this side of its potential market, because it would
completely skewer its user experience for the searcher, and kill its main business of serving
advertisements to an ever-growing body of Googlers who take fairness for granted. The Trai
consultation paper reproduces the new rules that the FCC proposes in the US for net
neutrality. These rules called as bright-line rules are:
No blocking: Broadband providers may not block access to legal content, applications,
services, or non-harmful devices.
No throttling: Broadband providers may not impair or degrade lawful internet traffic on
the basis of content, applications, services or non-harmful devices.
No paid prioritization: Broadband providers may not favour some lawful internet traffic
over other lawful traffic in exchange for consideration of any kind in other words, no
fast lanes. This rule also bans ISPs from prioritizing content and services of their
affiliates. These would be good rules for India as well.
Allowing unhindered sharing and trading of spectrum is one way to optimize use of the
limited spectrum that has been released for commercial use. This is as important as Net
Neutrality, to let the internet economy grow.

The words of Senator Al Franken wholly describes the true form of net neutrality and the
effect it might cause on our mindset and that of the countryThe nature of the Internet and the importance of Net Neutrality is that innovation can
come from everyone.