page_title: Net neutrality in India
section_title: TRAI's consultation paper
hierarchical_section_title: Net neutrality in India / History / 2015 / TRAI's consultation paper
caption_attribution_description: English: This image was taken on 23rd April during FSMK's walkathon in support of NetNeutrality
context_page_description: Mechanisms for establishing rules ensuring Net neutrality in India, are at present mainly enforced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. At present, there are no specific legislation regarding Net Neutrality in India.
  On 12 July 2018, The Department of Telecommunications made rules, approving the recommendations from TRAI, which heavily favoured net neutrality in India. These rules barred any form of data discrimination. Internet service providers which violate these rules may have their licenses cancelled. The rules make an exception for "critical IoT services" or "specialized services" such as autonomous vehicles and remote surgery operations.
  The debate on network neutrality in India gained public attention in December 2014, after Airtel, a mobile telephony service provider in India, announced additional charges for making voice calls from its network using apps like WhatsApp, Skype, etc.
  More recently, the spectacular rise of Reliance Jio and the reduction in the total number of Internet service providers to three has raised concerns regarding the market moving towards a monopoly. Such a transformation could have serious implications for net neutrality in the country.
context_section_description: On 27 March 2015, TRAI released a consultation paper on over-the-top services (OTT) and net neutrality for public feedback. On 7 April 2015, the Member of the Parliament from Odisha, Tathagata Satpathy, wrote an open letter to TRAI in support of net neutrality. On 16 April, the Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, also wrote an open letter to TRAI supporting net neutrality. Other politicians who came out in support of net neutrality were Rahul Gandhi, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Ajay Maken, and Tarun Vijay.
  On 11 April 2015, a YouTube comedy channel All India Bakchod uploaded a video titled "Save The Internet" which urged people to email TRAI demanding net neutrality. The video was re-shared on Twitter by numerous times, including by some Indian actors. Cleartrip.com, the Times Group, NewsHunt and NDTV pulled out of the Facebook initiated Internet.org expressing their support for net neutrality. However, Mark Zuckerberg defended Internet.org in an interview to Hindustan Times saying, "Net neutrality is not in conflict with working to get more people connected. We will never prevent people accessing other services, and we will not use fast lanes."
  On 23 April 2015, various organizations under the ambit of Free Software Movement of India organized protests in various cities across India. Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu organized a protest march at Besant Nagar Beach. Free Software Movement of Karnataka organized a protest march from National Games Village to Forum Mall in Bangalore.
  The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) soon afterwards launched a counter campaign called Sabka Internet, Sab ka Vikas. It claimed that COAI members aim to connect the unconnected citizens of India and demanded that VoIP apps should treated as cellular operators. The cellular operators send SMS messages to consumers, asking them to give them a missed call if they support their demands. On 3 May 2015, they claimed that they gather 4 million supporters in this manner.
  The last date for submission of comments was 24 April 2015 and TRAI received over a million emails. On 27 April 2015, members of the Anonymous India group claimed that they had taken down TRAI's official website, trai.gov.in, using a DDoS attack in retaliation for TRAI's release of PDF files containing the names and emails of more than a million people who commented on the "Regulatory Framework for OTT services" paper. However, officials from the IT Ministry could not confirm it and said the website was down most likely due to high traffic. TRAI was criticized for violating the privacy of the respondents by making their emails public along with email ids, as it exposed them to the wide internet thus potentially grabbing eyeballs of spammers.
  Facebook's proposed Free Basics is a new avatar of its internet.org initiative which allows customers to access a slew of apps for free. However, activists are pushing back this initiative arguing that with Free Basics, Facebook would become a gatekeeper, deciding who would not be on the Free Basics platform and in the process, make or break fortunes of several startups. As a result, Facebook has challenged the TRAI after releasing its Free Basics zero-rating app “which provides access to a host of Internet services like Wikipedia, the BBC, health sites and weather reports, and, of course, Facebook. The services are lightweight versions of the originals that load quickly and perform well on less robust 2G and 3G networks.” The TRAI blocked Free Basics on the basis that although the service is free, there are specific sites that cannot be accessed unless the consumer pays. Zuckerberg countered this argument by releasing a statement saying, “It’s not an equal Internet if the majority of people can’t participate." Towards the end of 2015, the TRAI temporarily banned Facebook’s “Free Basics” zero rating app for an undisclosed time. However, in a recent article, it is clear the TRAI has taken a stand supporting net neutrality after giving thought to both sides of the debate with the help of the consultation papers addressing the issue.
caption: Demonstration by the Free Software Movement of Karnataka in support of net neutrality; April 2015.
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