11 Things TRAI Did To Protect Net Neutrality In India, Support Free & Open Internet Access

Contrary to what's happening in the US, where regulators are fighting hard to kill net neutrality, the idea of a free and open Internet in India received a much needed shot in the arm, thanks to TRAI's net neutrality recommendations made to the Department of Telecommunications earlier today.

In short, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has backed net neutrality, free and open Internet in India. It has made a whole host of recommendations to the IT & Telecom Ministry for approval, almost all of which are towards protecting consumer interest -- which is a great thing.

Here's what TRAI said about net neutrality in India.

1) Net neutrality is alive and kicking in India, and the Internet cannot be allowed to be manipulated by ISPs which may negatively impact Internet access by anyone in the country.

2) TRAI allowed Internet Service Providers to manipulate Internet traffic on only one condition -- as long as these traffic management practices (TMPs) are transparent and the end user impact can be declared in advance.

3) In its net neutrality recommendations, TRAI also suggested changes to existing telecom licenses to better accommodate the prohibition of Internet service discrimination based on the type of content being consumed on the network. This will legally bind telecom operators from infringing on this principle.

4) TRAI also definitively stamped its foot down on ISPs preventing a user from accessing a piece of content online -- things like blocking, slowing down or allowing preferential speed lanes to a piece of content is not allowed. This is good news for consumers!

5) TRAI has exempted specialised services from principles of discriminatory treatment of telecom operators. What these services are hasn't been clearly defined by TRAI, but they're clear about one thing -- special services can't mean services used to provide basic Internet access. This is crucial, again, from a user interest perspective.

6) "Specialised services" will be defined by the Department of Telecommunication. We will have to wait and watch what services form the basis of these exemptions.

7) Internet service providers, like large telecommunication companies, use content delivery networks or CDNs to effectively deliver a piece of content within their internal network. These CDNs have been exempted from principles of discriminatory treatment laid down by TRAI.

8) TRAI has also recommended that deployment, regulation or management of Internet of Things (or IoT) implementations shouldn't be at the cost of limiting access to the Internet.

9) If a telecom operator is implementing any traffic management practice -- whenever it happens -- TRAI has recommended these instances to be openly declared and even intimated to users directly getting impacted by such restrictions, whatever their cause.

10) Similarly, telecom operators will now disclose any specialised service they're deploying, or any direct or indirect arrangement they enter into. To whom the telcos disclose this information hasn't yet been finetuned by TRAI yet, but it's still a good beginning.

11) In its final recommendation for net neutrality in India, TRAI has suggested the Department of Telecommunications to set up a multi-stakeholder body for monitoring and investigation of violations that directly impact its net neutrality principles.

All in all, this is a good day for the preservation of net neutrality in India, and a lot of credit should go to TRAI. The ball is now in the IT & Telecommunications Ministry's court to further fine-tune these TRAI recommendations and come up with more concrete steps to preserve and flourish a free and open Internet in the country.