TRAI received over three lakh e-mails in support of Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality: Principle of Equal Treatment of All Data on the Internet

The term Net Neutrality was in the news in April 2015. Net neutrality also known as Internet neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.

The term was coined by Columbia University media law professor Tim Wu in 2003 as an extension of the longstanding concept of a common carrier.

Why the term was in news?
• Till 14 April 2015, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) received over three lakh e-mails which were sent in response to a consultation paper released on 27 March 2015 on revamped regulatory framework for the Over-the-top (OTT) services. The paper proposed that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can impose differential charges on applications like Whatsapp and Skype which are providing voice, text services, etc by using the Internet infrastructure provided by them.
• On 14 April 2015, Indian e-commerce major Flipkart pulled out of discussions with Airtel for joining the Airtel Zero programme which allows users to access those internet based applications which are registered with Airtel without paying any data charges.