Telcos ask Trai to ignore open letter that backed net neutrality

NEW DELHI: The Cellular Operators Association of India has written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India against a submission by the Save the Internet campaign in a consultation by the regulator on whether digital services -- such as instant messengers and streaming content providers -- should have a framework with the telecom services providers. COAI said the open letter is “propaganda activism based on fallacies and unfounded fear-mongering” The letter by COAI, the industry body that has among its members Airtel, Jio and Vi, marks an intensifying battle between telecom firms and technology companies over a plan that digital rights activists say could affect the principle known as net neutrality, which seeks all digital resources to be accessible without any differentiation. “After reading my Twitter thread on how TSPs, in their submissions to TRAI, said that they wanted to charge OTT services a network usage fee, many founders asked if they could put together a letter to TRAI to counter TSPs’ submissions,” said Pahwa. COAI has said that it has not asked for a “network usage fee” but for a “fair share charge” which wouldn’t be levied on startups and smaller OTT players. Pahwa said that the issue of network usage fee, which COAI has called “fair share charge”, is inextricably linked to net neutrality.