Net Neutrality – Written by Chitranshi

Net Neutrality which means fairness or impartiality on the internet. As it is clear from the two terms that there should be fairness in treating all data on the internet equally and should not be charged deferentially by the web based services,apps etc.Some companies are not following the principle of net neutrality.

Like in 2012, Reliance had announced that it will offer free Whatsapp and Facebook to its users for rupees 16 per month without charging any extra cost.A word ‘free’ violating the concept of net neutrality.Why should users pay extra to keep Whatsapp or Facebook free while other apps and services will be chargeable for the users.In 2013, Aircel had announced that it will offer free access to Wikipedia. Here again, it argues why it would be free for a particular site and not for other sites.And there were few companies who violates the net neutrality.

We customers feel happy when we heard such offers and deals that we will get free access to our favorite sites.But as a matter of fact we need to stay away from such free offers and should support ‘net neutrality’. Now question comes into our mind who will be benefited from ‘net neutrality’? It is apparent ‘we consumers’ will be benefited from it as we don’t need to pay unnecessarily to get free access for a particular web service or website, or faster access for a particular site or service. Earlier web users are free to connect to whatever website or service they want.

Internet Service Providers do not bother what kind of content is passing through their servers.Data rate for watching videos on you tube and using Facebook is same.Internet Service Providers following the principle of net neutrality.Users can access any service or website without any interference from an Internet Service Providers.

If there will be no net neutrality,internet service providers will have the power to control the internet traffic so that they can earn extra benefit from it. Without net neutrality, there will be no free access and there would be package plans for the consumer. For example, if we pay 500 rupees we only be able to access particular websites and have to pay more for accessing other websites. The concept of net neutrality doesn’t exist in India. No formal rules have been formed yet to uphold net neutrality. There are ways through which the principle of net neutrality can be kept alive by forming proper rules and implementing them too so that internet should be kept open and consumer friendly.

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