Net Neutrality

Heard of this term? Well, I’m sure you must have, if not before, then lately for sure! After all, this has created such a buzz in the internet world.

Let’s first see, what exactly does this term mean. Net neutrality, also called as net equality is the principle that internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially on the basis of user, site, platform, applications, type of attached equipment or mode of communication.

To understand this better, let’s just imagine that how unfair would it be, if a teacher charges more fees from the first benchers  because of their front seating and less from the last benchers. Wouldn’t that be absurd too? Similarly, a case of violation of net neutrality can be when the internet provider charges us at a much higher rate if we’re browsing through a particular webpage or site, without us having even proper knowledge of different rates for different pages. Or let’s say, if they charge us more if we use internet on our phones than when we use it on our laptops. All this would make the entire process of networking so complex and unfair.

And especially in an era, where the internet is almost ubiquitous and so essential, net neutrality is something that I suppose, nearly all internet users would support without a second thought. I mean internet is a forum for free expression, innovation, learning, entertainment and so much more and doing away with net neutrality would curb away the freedom of the users. Nobody would want to sit in front of their laptops and think multiple times before opening a particular application, page, site etc with such complexities in mind.

I agree that the competition in the telecom industry is increasing at an alarming rate, and the companies face the brunt. But that in no way, should be passed on to the users.

It is because of net neutrality that inter connectivity among people has become so easy, be it through facebook, skype, viber, whatsapp or any such application. New start ups and even the existing brands are also able to expand their reach substantially because of this. The transaction costs are low, so it just makes the entire networking idea seem easy and feasible to the users too!

So, as active and enthusiastic internet users, let’s defend net neutrality, till we win in this fight and continue to enjoy networking as we have done it, ever since it became a part of our lives! What say? 😀

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