The struggle to
keep the Internet freely accessible to all got a welcome shot in the arm on
Tuesday. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India (TRAI) finally came out with clear guidelines in favour of Net neutrality that
are consistent with its earlier stand on Facebook’s Free Basics proposal. After
consultation papers issued in May 2016 and this January, the regulator
reiterated that there cannot be discriminatory treatment of websites on the
Internet by service providers. In particular, TRAI warned providers against the
practice of blocking certain websites and tinkering with content speeds. This,
in a nutshell, means that service providers such as telecom companies cannot
stand in the way of a consumer’s access to content that would otherwise be
provided to her without any undue hindrance. They cannot, for instance, charge
consumers for access to certain content, or receive payment from websites
promising greater promotion of their product over the rest. Quite notably,
TRAI’s decision comes in the wake of international focus on the U.S. Federal
Communications Commission’s decision to scrap regulations on service providers
imposed during the Obama administration. While batting for the right to an open
Internet, however, TRAI has been careful to allow some exceptions that allow
companies to discriminate between content if it helps them regulate the flow of
traffic or offer “specialised services”.
While TRAI’s new
guidelines will help the cause of building the Internet as a public platform with
open access to all, the concerns of service providers should not be dismissed
altogether. The Internet has spread all over the world, so widely that many
believe it is now an essential good. But the infrastructure that serves as the
backbone of the Internet has not come without huge investments by private
service providers. So any regulation that severely restricts the ability of
companies to earn sufficient returns on investment will only come at the cost
of the welfare of the public. In this connection, TRAI has been open to
adopting a nuanced view that differentiates between various forms of content
instead of imposing a blanket ban on all forms of price differentiation. The
new policy, for instance, will still allow companies to justify the costs
incurred in providing niche content to consumers. At the same time, TRAI’s
measured response is likely to effectively address the problem of
anti-competitive practices adopted by certain providers. Interestingly, it has
left it, with important caveats, to the government to decide on services that
count as “specialised” and deserve exceptional treatment by regulators. To this
end, a proper mechanism needs to be instituted to make sure that the exceptions
are not used as loopholes by the big Internet players. Policymakers will also
need to think hard about creating an appropriate legal framework to prevent the
capture of regulation by special interests.
Source: THE HINDU-30th November,2017
