Net neutrality: Industry welcomes TRAI levelling field; victory for OTT players

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recommendations on net neutrality on Tuesday received mixed reactions from industry bodies, with some terming these as “progressive”, and others saying that the suggestions did not consider the issues related to OTT (over-the top) players.

The Internet Association of India (IAMAI) said TRAI’s recommendations were “progressive” and in line with the debates in the industry and user groups that have been raging for the past two years.

“Special provisions for IoT, specialised services and content delivery networks reflect a forward-looking recommendation that takes into account the needs of the foreseeable future,” said IAMAI.

“The TRAI position on differential pricing had a sunset clause of two years, which is fast coming to an end. Thus, according to IAMAI, these recommendations should be adopted at the earliest, or else all the above mentioned benefits would be lost,” it added. Nasscom and Data Security Council of India (DSCI) also hailed the recommendations, saying these would promote “equitable access” to the internet, and ensure a level-playing field for IT and OTT services providers to innovate and provide a constantly expanding range of new services.

“We believe that the recommendations should be evaluated and taken up for implementation in a speedy manner. This will help deliver on India’s pledge to the global agenda to ensure every citizen’s right to unfettered access to the internet,” said Nasscom and DSCI.”

However, Amresh Nandan, Research Director, Gartner, said the recommendations were a bit “simplistic” when seen in the light of the “increasing complexity” in the economics of the internet.

“While protecting democratic values, there is a need to create incentives for investment in infrastructure. This is particularly important, when the focus has to be on innovation to find alternate/ superior mechanisms of communication,” he said.

Harsh Walia, Associate Partner, Khaitan & Co, said all IoT service providers are not excluded from the principle of non-discrimination, and those players not providing critical services may find it onerous if DoT accepts the recommendations.

Further, TRAI has excluded content delivery networks (CDN) from the purview of restrictions on non-discriminatory treatment and have targeted only internet access service providers at the moment.

“While this provides a considerable relief to providers of CDN services, it puts TSPs in a precarious position, if this recommendation is accepted by DoT,” he added. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said it was disappointed that the authority did not adopt the industry recommendation to have a wider approach to net neutrality, and that issues of OTT players were not considered.

Also, a committee to review and decide on network management violations was “unnecessarily bureaucratic, and not in keeping with light-touch regulation or the ease of doing business”, it said.

“The DoT is already well positioned to investigate any violation of licence conditions and it already has all the necessary enforcement mechanisms in place, hence such a heavy-handed approach is not necessary, as is, now being proposed by TRAI,” said Rajan S Mathews, Director General, COAI.