I

-WELCOMETOTHE DEBATEOF NET NEUTRALITY

he Internet ... today's bloodline for millions...something which we've taken for granted... a

right of sorts - well might just not remainthe same anymore...

Welcome to the debate on Net Neutrality!Well I am sure by now we are aware about this

nuisance of a situation - will the Net be neutral orwon't it? Enough and more discussions are happen-ing all over the globe. Might not be that mainstreamin India, but then soon than later it is bound to hap-pen here too. After all we do have a way of adoptingto global trends set by Big Brother.

So getting on to it:The Internet's fundamental and most unique fea-

ture has been that of openness. This is definitely one

of primary reasons why the medium has grovm faster

than any other till date. It has shaped economies,built brands, created jobs, brought down govern-

ments and inspired and nurtured our creativity - andmade our cats famous!

It's not just another medium - it's THE medium ofconnectivity across the globe.

Because of this nature of the medium - innova-tion and creativity has thrived and not been the sole

privilege of a few - no longer do we need to wait forthat one break that could be achieved only by "know-

ing someone in the industry" - YouTube, Facebook

and blogs have changed that. Countless services

like these have flourished with the Internet and allof these serwices had very modest beginnings. They

starled as basic websites with minimal resources. Butthey succeeded why? Because they had the Interneton their side (ok, the business ideas were also great)

- but mostly because it was available at ehse.

Location-Location-Location - the primary needfor any business to flourish. The internet providedthese start-ups with this ingredient at marginal costs

and hence they could become giants today. A free andopen internet is the single greatest technology of ourtime, and control.should not be at the mercy of a few.

In essence, Net neutrality- Stimulates competition among service providers

(ISPs)- Helps prevent unfair pricing practices

- Promotes innovation

- Promotes the spread of ideas

- Drives entrepreneurship- Protects freedom of speech

Without an open internet, big corporations (read

ISP's) would have.a tight control over how we ac-

cess websites and serwices. They would decide if we

should watch that annoying cat dance on YouTubeor find out Which Mahabharata character are you orread a financial blog. All of it controlled by one guid-ing principle: Make the moolahl

So now even though you're paying INR r5oo forthat SMbps connection - you would end up pa)4ng

even more to access particular tlpes of content. Afterall, its simple economics - if the cost of raw materialor distribution increases, it is inadvertently passed

on the product in order to maintain profitability.But is that all there is to Net Neutrality - we pay-

ing more?No!The significance is far greater. The absence of an

open internet means that the power to control in-formation is going to lie with some s-elect.pgglle -something which is in the DNA of Internet - easy ac-

cess no longer remains so.

In a sense the ISP's could become the biggest con-trollers of almost every.thing tomorrow - Not onlythey could control the fate of businesses but couldalso begin to control the kind of information avail-able - all made available to those with deeper pock-

ets. They could have the Gor,'t in their pockets - shape

policies- control the economy - create laws - controltaxes - control people...become dictators...phew... okthis is me getting paranoid...in truth not so much.

iANUARY z0l5 / thinking aloud! // 19

So what haPPens? Businesses have

ISP's to get the best distribution pipes

business arrangements. Now if You

would be apPlicable onlY to ISPs

and large Internet comPanies -think again. To Put this into con-

text: what about those serwices

that don't do these PartnershiPswith operators? In the end theY

will be forced to, because the

Data/VAS dePartments of ISPs

will start discriminating and

clearing piPes to the highest

bidder. Can a start-uP get such

a deal without such PaYments?India does not have a law re-

garding net neutralitY and tilldate it hasn't moved towards

creating one. TRAI again is

more of a guideline setter and

less of an enforcer - it has cre-

feeding the beast that will turn around and bite

them iomorrow. Social Network sites have been

trying to push to get mobile usage increased oftheir services bY q'ing uP with

to flock to

- via saidthink this

ated guidelines (while issuing li-cences) for providing Unified Access Service, even

promotes the principle of non-discrimination, but

does not enforce it.Many Internet companies have already been

telecom operators and most ofthe times getting users unlimitedbandwidth for that service. No-

ticed that small ticker on Airtel

- Facebook free for a month.Bundled Mobile handset of-

fers have the same PrinciPle.Some of these deals are in the

form of barter arrangements

masked as content services, but

that's the first steP towards Po-

tential monetization for ISPs and

there is no turning back.

Finally, we can hoPe that the

new Government (which is ProDigitization) sees this for what

it is and upholds Net Neutral-

ity should such a situation arise

here. Whatever happens my friend, you and me as

consumers will ultimately pay the price (literally)'

aViews exPressedhere are Personal

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