![]() | #121 | |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: May 2010 Location: Delhi
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| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Net Neutrality: Airtel's Srini Gopalan clears the air on myths about Airtel Zero and Net Neutrality Quote:
Last edited by noopster : 16th April 2015 at 20:26. Reason: Putting the article in quotes for clarity | |
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![]() | #122 | |
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mumbai
Posts: 2,135
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| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
If the government policies keep changing every 2-3 years India will never be a good place to do business, forget competing with other countries. | |
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![]() | #123 | |
Senior - BHPian ![]() Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Chennai
Posts: 1,803
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| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet I'm saddened to see comments arguing that Airtel Zero (and other such zero-rating schemes) by the scheming telcos & ISPs are not violating net neutrality. I don't mind people declaring that they are against net neutrality and in favour of such zero-rating schemes, but proclaiming zero-rating schemes are not violating net neutrality is way, way off the mark and reflects the exact position of the scheming telcos & ISPs on this issue. Worldwide (at least in non-totalitarian countries), independent regulatory agencies have recognised that zero-rating schemes are indeed a violation of net neutrality and are striving to put an end to such practices. In fact, such zero-rating plans, by their very scheming, covert and underhand nature (and the fake idea of providing something "free" for the uninformed & unconnected masses, much like those election freebies) may prove to be the BIGGEST threat to net neutrality instead of other overt threats. The well-known and overt threats to net neutrality are practices such as blocking, throttling and providing "fast lanes" in favour of some websites, apps, platforms etc. and against others. Zero-rating schemes may prove to be a much bigger and more dangerous threat to net neutrality than the above mentioned practices: Quote:
Last edited by RSR : 16th April 2015 at 12:07. | |
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![]() | #124 | |||||||||
Team-BHP Support ![]() ![]() | Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
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Everybody pays to get access to Internet. Now Airtel is saying it will make the access free whenever you visit their partners. Can BSNL/Vodafone offer the same to you? No, you can be connected to only one ISP. That is the crux of the matter. If your access to the Internet is through just one vendor, and if they decides to play the gatekeeper, they can completely change your Internet experience. I am not speculating. In 1994, I got my first home internet from AOL. When you login to AOL, it would bring up AOL browser, which had links all kinds of services. None of that was world wide web. But for almost all AOL members, that was Internet. They only used the buttons provided by AOL to all their net surfing. But I also used Mosaic at work, so I knew there was a world wide web outside of AOL. So I downloaded Mosiac at great difficulty and was able connect to non-AOL sites from home. But most people will go with what comes default/free with the service. The slang AOLer was coined because of this sheltered existence of AOL users. If ISPs get away with this, future gen will be AOLers. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=AOLer Quote:
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How does that help? The consumer is always tied to a single ISP, if 90% of the websites are on other ISPs favoured list, he is not getting any benefit. | |||||||||
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![]() | #125 | |
Team-BHP Support ![]() ![]() Join Date: May 2004 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 20,293
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| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
How does it translate as charge to start up ![]() Last edited by Jaggu : 16th April 2015 at 12:37. | |
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![]() | #126 | |||
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: EU - Nordic
Posts: 2,061
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| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
One of the biggest arguments that AirTel and the like are putting forward is that these zero-rating schemes puts free internet in the hands of millions more who are not connected now (maybe due to costs). In other words, those millions who only get free internet will become potential customers of sites on the AirTel Zero platform only. It is also easy to make statements such as "would pay through the roof if made paid". It may be correct in your own case, but it need not be so for the majority. If there is a site (maybe run/supported by the operator) which provides somewhat similar utility for free, most people would switch eventually. Quote:
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![]() | #127 | |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Pune
Posts: 99
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| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
In a less than ideal world (like ours) flipkart & Airtel will shadily decide to do the same. | |
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![]() | #128 | |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 602
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| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
If they are so keen to provide free access to its customers, why did they choose only a few, WHY CANT BE FOR ALL WEBSITES? Make all websites free. What will be the difference b/n the normal sites and the "Zero" sites, if nothing what are they trying to bring in? Its nothing but a trap, they will start this with a free access with a fine print to change the scheme and later they will start charging. | |
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![]() | #129 | |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: bangalore
Posts: 560
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| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
So can't the "zero cost internet" and the "free internet" co-exist? By taking away a "zero cost internet", aren't you taking away the right for a person to choose what he wants? If I choose to live in a not-so-free world, shouldn't that be my prerogative? | |
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![]() | #130 | |
Team-BHP Support ![]() ![]() | Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
Do we really need a walled garden. Imagine internet.org spreads through India with free internet access. Whats on this internet? Facebook, wikipedia and a bunch of other websites who can pay. So you have an entire demographic who know only these 80 sites. For them this is the internet. This is an extremely slippery support. Suppose a lobbying group site buys into this by paying. Now we have an entire demographic having access to only one propaganda. Another weird thing is that people have extremely short memories. Cable TV networks(local cable wallah) do not have any net-neutrality regulation covering them. So in political strongholds, channels critical of the regional mafia will not be served. I have seen this happen personally in Punjab, where some local channels were blacked out during elections, because they were critical of a particular govt. Do people want this kind of internet, where your ISP decides which sites or propaganda is beneficial to them? Is this the real internet. For those thinking "FREE is GOOD", remember... Drug dealers also give the first fix for free. | |
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![]() | #131 | |
Senior - BHPian ![]() Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: LandOfNoWinters
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| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
2. You can't switch everyday simply because protectionism is being followed in the name of licensing and you would run out of options soon. If we try to see the potential vendors, I have the following ways to access internet:
The fact is that there is a heterogeneity. One ISP does not hold monopoly. 3. You are assuming that other ISPs are idiots and will be wiling to lose traffic and subscriber base to AIrtel. Why will they not tie up with Flipkart. Or better - Why will hey not tie up with competitors to flipkart? Imagine if this is the case with limited licensed vendors, what would happen in a true free market? Also no one is blocking or banning the content of non-tied-up vendor. (which is a valid fear, but even this scenario can be broken, see below) You seem to be hung up on the point that subscribers of Airtel will become duds and be fed with free content of flipkart and they will never know the world out there. Perhaps possible. But the intelligent will always try to seek better things. They may chance upon the fact that Idea has tied up with Amazon. And rates at amazon are cheaper. The news leaks out. Even idiot people try paid connection on their Airtel and see that yes it is indeed true. Some prefer paying to airtel because it still works out the be cheaper, some make switch to Idea. Even if Airtel had banned the amazon content, the idiot will surely have people around who use Idea. He can easily see what is the truth. And perhaps make a switch. Last edited by alpha1 : 16th April 2015 at 13:34. | |
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![]() | #132 | |
Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Bombay
Posts: 1,423
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| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
I simply cannot understand why Airtel cannot just come clean and say its trying to monetize its infrastructure as much as possible, while keeping in mind that there is no cost added to the end consumer. Why do they go around trying to confuse the issue? These kind of marketing spiels really get my goat, simply because it means that they assume we're dumb. | |
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![]() | #133 |
BHPian ![]() Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: GTA | GHMC
Posts: 888
Thanked: 1,030 Times
| Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet For a moment forget Flipkart. Let's assume they tie up with NDTV. Now all your news will come to you from one source - anyone that wants to manipulate the masses now has a tool that reaches everyone for free. So, manipulate NDTV news sources and mission achieved. Next, let's say Airtel ties up with Sakshi (Jagan owned news). Now, all your news will be Jagan favoring news. Will you ever be able to find out about anything/anyone else? That is what is scary. It always starts small. |
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![]() | #134 |
Team-BHP Support ![]() ![]() | Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet The question is: Should one evaluate the (end product + transport) together for quality of service to the consumer or both of them independently to add to permutations/combinations and hence decide on choice of both separately. Last edited by ampere : 16th April 2015 at 13:52. |
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![]() | #135 | |
Team-BHP Support ![]() ![]() | Re: The fight for net neutrality is on! Time to reclaim the internet Quote:
Being in a city you think there is lots of choice for everybody. Not so. At my rural office I am stuck with Tata because only they offer 1:1 fiber connection to my office. I have no choice of switching. At my home, only Airtel offers reliable broadband. BSNL is very notorious in this area. | |
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