Telecom Commission approves net neutrality, new telecom policy

In a move that will ensure open and free Internet in India, the government has approved the principle of Net neutrality. The Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in the Department of Telecom, on Wednesday approved the recommendation made eight months ago by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on the subject. “The TC today approved Net neutrality as recommended by TRAI,” Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said after a meeting. The regulator had said, “Internet access services should be governed by a principle that restricts any form of discrimination or interference in the treatment of content, including practices like blocking, degrading, slowing down or granting preferential speeds or treatment to any content.” This principle, it said, would apply to any discriminatory treatment based on the sender or receiver, the network protocols, or the user equipment, but not to specialised services or other exclusions. To implement Net neutrality, the regulator had recommended that the terms of licence agreements that govern the provision of Internet services in India be amended “to incorporate the principles of non-discriminatory treatment of content along with the appropriate exclusions and exceptions.” It further recommended the establishment of a multi-stakeholder not-for-profit body for monitoring and enforcing these principles.