Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced a consultation paper on the net neutrality issue.
TRAI is seeking stakeholders view by February 15, and counter-comments by February 28, 2017.
You can also: Download TRAI consultation paper on net neutrality
Recently, US president-elect Donald Trump indicated that his administration would like to review net neutrality guidelines.
The net neutrality issue has left the telecom service providers (TSP) and the over-the-top (OTT) players in India at loggerheads.
TRAI in its consultation paper said that transparency is one of the key enabling factors towards ensuring adherence to the nondiscrimination principles set forth in any net neutrality framework.
Timeline of net neutrality related activities
January 19, 2015 – Creation of DoT committee on net neutrality
March 27, 2015 – Consultation on regulatory framework for OTT services
May 2015 – Release of DoT committee report on net neutrality
December 9, 2015 – Consultation on differential pricing for data services
February 8, 2016 – Regulation on prohibition of discriminatory tariffs for data services
March 3, 2016 – DoT sought Authority’s recommendations on net neutrality
May 19, 2016 – Consultation on free data
May 30, 2016 – Pre-consultation on net neutrality
December 19, 2016 – Recommendations on provisioning of free data
In an net neutrality context, the scope of transparency obligations can range from obligations cast upon telecom operators to disclose technical information on quality of services (QoS) parameters, to providing information that is understandable and may enable consumers to make more informed decisions, and detect violations.
Regarding the scope of transparency obligations, TRAI’s consultation paper has put thrust on price information and commercial terms and traffic management practices along with many other characteristics.
The consultation paper asked stakeholders: “What could be the principles for ensuring nondiscriminatory access to content on the Internet, in the Indian context?” and how should “Internet traffic” and providers of “Internet services” be understood in the NN context?”
It sought views of the regulators on reasonable traffic management practices as well as regarding what would be the most effective legal/policy instrument for implementing a net neutrality framework in India.
