Over 57,000 people make suggestions on full net neutrality

On mygov.in, it’s 57,440 so far, and counting. This is the number of comments from people over the issue of net neutrality on the government site.

For the past two days, the site has seen a massive surge in public response on the telecom department panel’s net-neutrality recommendations, with almost all asking for a free and equal access to the internet.

Interestingly, there were around 700 comments on the site on August 14. The government has extended the deadline for seeking public view by days to August 20. 

Net neutrality is the principle that says internet service providers must enable equal and non-discriminatory access to all data, applications and services, without favouring or blocking particular products or websites on the basis of tariffs or speed.

The government, which has backed net neutrality, will firm up regulation on the issue after considering public opinion and the views of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

A telecom department panel has backed open and unregulated structure for over-the-top (OTT) services but proposed regulation of domestic calls through internet-based apps like Skype, WhatsApp and Viber, by putting them on a par with services offered by telecom operators. 

The panel is of the view that no tariff plan that allows blocking, throttling and prioritisation of content should be permitted. Trai will decide whether any tariff plan violates the principles of net neutrality. 

On April, Trai had received over one million comments on its paper over net neutrality, with a majority demanding implementation of the principle.