Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Sorry to say, but I believe you still haven't understood the basic concept of Net Neutrality.
Definition:The principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.
Here are the reasons why your examples are flawed while comparing with the current situation of Net Neutrality violation by Airtel.
In earlier times, people had to paid AOL and VSNL to maintain their email accounts. That changed when hotmail came on scene and allowed free email accounts. Hotmail got sidelined when Gmail came with their service and offered huge storage space a- almost unlimited. Today Gmail dominates, but I did not aware of any protests when it started its free service.
To begin with, HotMail and Gmail are not Internet service providers. If AOL / VSNL had made exclusive deals with Hotmail or Gmail to make it free on their network while being paid on other networks, then that would be violation net neautrality. Other example: today incoming calls are free on mobiles. When it started, one had to pay equal amount of charges for receiving the call as one did for making. One service provider offered free incoming calls - there was a High Court judgement against it on the basis that free incoming calls with clog the signals and disrupt the service. Today everybody gets free incoming - I wonder what happened to the argument of signals getting cloged.
This inst even remotely related to net neutrality.
Network getting clogged may have been a ploy to extort more money from customers. But again it is their own network and not the free internet that they were controlling. Telephone network operators are free to charge their customers whatever they want and I dont think there is a law that stops them from doing that. Fortunately competition doesn't let them do that. As long as Airtel is providing equal access to other websites ie in terms of speed and bandwith, I do not think they are violating net neutrality. Whether to levy data charges for access to certain website is a commercial decision.
Providing free access to favored apps while charging for other apps violates the core principle of Net Neutrality (without favoring or blocking particular products or websites)
Here is an example:
Imagine tomorrow Mr X, who is a Billionaire decides to get into eCommerce. He has Billions of $ to invest in his new venture. He decides to setup the following:
- Shopping app
- Travel ticketing app
- Restaurant review / order app
- News app
He strikes a deal with all major telecom operators to provide all the above for free which will work without a data plan. To make the deal more attractive, he throws in some popular apps like FB, Whatsapp and twitter. A normal customer has everything he needs. Doesn't need any data pack pack for all the above things. He also sets a condition to make regular internet packs more expensive.
Now look at the endless possibilities that Mr X has in making money. He now can sell products on his shopping site, sell tickets on his ticketing site and favor restaurants (by taking commission ) on his review site. He can feed the public with propaganda supporting him and his interest via his free new site. He can manufacture news and also influence politics.
Now you tell me. How fair will this deal be to the FlipKart, RedBus, Amazon, Zomato?
How fair will this deal be to a startup who wants to make it big without a deep pocket?
How fair will this be to a person who figures this scam out and wants to access the open internet and shop from the eCommerce site of his choice?
This is why Net Neutrality matters!!
Hope I haven't confused you more. Mod Note: Please do NOT reply to posts using bold text, as it leads to visual discomfort for readers. Additionally, it's inconvenient to quote & reply to such a post.
Last edited by Rudra Sen : 15th April 2015 at 08:55.
|