BIF reaffirms its support to Net Neutrality

The Broadband India Forum (BIF) welcomes the recommendations released by TRAI on Net Neutrality and reaffirms its support to Net Neutrality and said that it supports an open Internet and believes that consumers should decide what to do online.

TV Ramachandran, President Broadband India Forum said, "BIF warmly welcomes these Recommendations by TRAI on Net Neutrality. We laud the Authority for upholding the freedom of the Internet and clearly enunciating all the concerned principles of Net Neutrality."

He said, "The Recommendations are strongly in favor of consumers and in the overall interest of the general public. They constitute a very good foundation for Digital India."

BIF said that Net Neutrality regulations should only be applicable to Telecom Service Providers/Internet Service Providers and not to the OTTs/CDNs/Specialized Services.

Also, BIF supports the recommendation that there should be no blocking, throttling, and discrimination of any content available on the Public Internet. BIF completely agrees to the TRAI recommendation of formation of an industry-led multi-stakeholder body for enforcement & monitoring work in a collaborative framework.

To recall Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has issued the much-awaited recommendations on Net Neutrality, under which the regulator asserted that internet services should be non-discriminatory. It also suggested the government set up a body to monitor activities.

The service providers should be restricted from entering into any arrangement, agreement or contract, by whatever name called, with any person, natural or legal, that has the effect of discriminatory treatment based on content, sender or receiver, protocols or user equipment," a release issued by the sector regulator said.

The regulator said that internet access services should be governed by a principle that restricts any form of discrimination or interference in the treatment of content, including practices like blocking, degrading, slowing down or granting preferential speeds or treatment to any content.

It also said that Department of Telecommunications (DoT) would identify the specialized services.