Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

30.05.2016

Media and Communication

Net Neutrality Round 2: TRAI versus TSPs

MANU/TRAI/0041/2016

TRAI began investigations into the second aspect of the ‘net neutrality’ debate: prioritising certain data over other.

Telecommunication Service Providers utilise network management tools to deal with congestion. Growth in broadband use and rising internet speeds have placed increasing demands on networks, requiring clever techniques to prevent wholesale slowdown. A video stream, for instance, which requires constant, high bitrate transfers over extended periods of time, may be prioritised somewhat higher to prevent staccato video playback at the cost of a download of an obscure website, something that will likely go unnoticed. In fact, TRAI reports that video traffic will constitute nearly 74 per cent of all internet traffic in India by 2019. Already in 2014 it held a large 46 per cent share.

The Authority accepts that with the increased bandwidth and internet traffic, traffic management systems are inevitable. It is when TSPs discriminate between data in aspects of speed, access or price does concern arise. Some such tactics that are frowned upon include blocking certain content outright, “throttling” (reducing) internet speeds, preferential treatment of certain content, and, of course, privacy concerns over unauthorised peeking into data packets.

TRAI’s recommendations, unlike its denouncement of a free versus paid internet, refrain from diktat. It instead recommends transparency for consumers, “application-agnostic” controls, no untoward peeking into data, and “improper (paid or otherwise) prioritisation may not be permitted.”

The importance of an equally accessible internet, and the complexities of ensuring the same, are likely to have encouraged TRAI to recommending a Net Neutrality framework, which will have a dedicated cell in the Department of Telecom, making neutrality a condition for grant of licence, with guidelines being issued from time to time.

Comments on TRAI’s proposal are being received till 21 June 2016.

Telecom Subscription Data (31st March, 2016)

Tags : trai net neutrality throttling data priority

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