How to Keep the Fight for Net Neutrality Going

NET NEUTRALITY- The Burning Scenario at Present

The hell broke loose in the media with regards to the net neutrality and we the common multitude are still waiting for the final verdict for this course of action. All the corporate organizations are trying their best to get the verdict on the internet rules from the FCC. The initiative could bring a great impact in terms of net neutrality. If the rules are rolled over, then the service providers will be able to do anything on their own wish.

They can even the block the contents for the clients if they wish to. The speed, streaming, and everything related to the net will depend on the internet service providers. They may increase the charges for the internet pack at their own will. The Telcos could make use their power in order to smoothen the competitive market by supplying their individual content and also provide some sort of illegal advantages.

The protest was mandatory in order to restore the balance of the net neutrality rules. In return this will help to support an open forum of internet. Staging protests or writing to the FCC is not enough to bring this under control.

THE CHALLENGES

One can pen down the issues and head to the FCC in order to support the net neutrality. You need to write down your own thoughts about how the issue may impact your business or personal purposes for both your family and yourself. It is always recommended that the representatives make their statement for this.

You may get in touch with the representatives and proceed with your write ups or opinions. They are bound to hear from you and about your opinion which can make a huge difference on this digital world. If you are living in the state of the House Committee, then it would be easy for you to get in touch with them.

Often it is believed that the best solution comes when we meet with the persons face to face and that is how the things are sorted out. So, in order to deliver the message into their ears, it is better to meet them in personal.

After you have checked the schedule, you can fix a meeting or even end up calling them up. If your call gets unanswered, you can leave a voice mail after you have recorded your message. Later when they are available they may answer your queries.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

It is up to the local leaders or politicians who can make a big difference on this platform. Previously, the mayors had held a strong position for the protection of the net neutrality scenarios. The more actions, the better it is for the whole community.

Still the scene is not clear what will happen with the current breaking scenario. The Congress is still unsure about the verdict. The best thing is to keep up with the latest news in order to stay updated what is happening in world

Report on Net Neutrality to Be out Soon: Here’s A Look at the Timeline to Know How It All Started

A confirmed statement was given by the Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on 27th June 2015, wherein he confirmed that that the government is expected to soon released their report containing all the details about the net neutrality. According to him the telecom department is also waiting for the report from TRA sectoral regulator. He further added that that they are awaiting the TRAI reports and this is the main reason by government has not been able to release its report pertaining to the neutrality issue. Earlier this month, a report has already been submitted to the telecom minister who highlights the details on the net neutrality issue that has been collected by the panel set by the business.

What is net neutrality? 

It means that there should be equal treatment that should be offered to all the internet traffic and the government should give any kind of priority to any entity or a person or even a company based on the amount of payment that have been making. This aspect is being called as a discriminatory factor. DoT has already appointed a 6 member committee in January to look into this issue. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or the TRAI had also sent invitation to the stakeholders to present their opinion on the ongoing issue as net neutrality as well as the regulation of the OTT services like Skype and the WhatsApp.

According to the rumours the TRAI has already received more than 10 Lakhs feedbacks. During this time the TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar's tenure ended and a new head will be appointed for the regulatory. As if now, the telecom minister has not confirmed any details pertaining to this area. In the last couple of month a lot of noise has been about net neutrality and a lot of stir was already created by Airtel by their Zero marketing platform. Outrage was created in the market leading to many entities pulling out of this platform.
Timeline of the events

27th March 2015: 117 page documents were published by TRAI. This document was about the Consultation Paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) services. It also talked about the net neutrality.

6th April 2015: Airtel Zero, a new marketing platform was launched by Airtel.

9th April 2015: Flipkart app gets down voted due to tweet about the net neutrality by the company's representative.

11th April 2015: Save the internet video was released.

13th April 2015: Lakhs of support received by TRAI.

14th April 2015: Outrage forces Flipkart to pull out of program.

16th April 2015: Debate over neutrality takes the internet by storm

May 2015: Facebook comes up with open platform for the developers in India. While on one side people are eagerly waiting for the decisions of the government there are volunteer group called as the Savetheintert who have requested that in the absence of any solution from TRAI, telecom companies should be avoided from launching any new plans and services that will ignite the net neutrality issue.

Data Roaming Charges to End in EU within Two Years

Roaming Charges Abolish – June 2017

For a long period the Commission had been working to decrease roaming charges with the European Union and has reached a preliminary deal recently to abolish mobile roaming charges across the 28 country bloc by June 2017 and telecom operators need to treat all internet traffic equally. Prices for roaming calls, SMS and data have fallen by 80% from 2007 and the data roaming presently is up to 91% cheaper when compared to 2007.

The draft agreement indicates an important step in the EU’s plan to service the digital market of the continent in order to enhance the grown and to meet up with Asia and United States.Latvia, holding the rotating EU presidency, has commented in a statement after 12 hours of talks with EU lawmakers, that `under the agreement, roaming surcharges in the European Union will be abolished as of June 15, 2017’.The deal would need the approval of the European Parliament and EU member states, some of whom have been pushing for the abolition of roaming charges in December in 2018. While some countries having a good number of tourists, like Spain and Greece have profited from higher prices, Eastern European countries are apprehensive that operators could hike domestic prices if roaming charges are eliminated prematurely.

Net Neutrality – Equal Internet Tariff 

Consumer’s rights group who say member states are defending the interest of their national operators have been annoyed with the delay. Roaming charges would be dropped in April 2016 in a temporary move, with maximum surcharges of 0.05 euros per minute of a call or megabyte of data and 0.02 euros per text message which would make the maximum charges for roaming around 75% cheaper than the prevailing tariff covers, according to the Commission.

The European Commission has set limits on roaming prices from 2007 stating that the retail rates for cross-border calls, texts as well as data have decreased by more than 80% and for data by 91%. With regards to net neutrality, the European Unions has decided to plan telecom operators to treat all the internet traffic in an equal manner and blocking would only be permitted for certain reasons like counter cyber-attacks or child pornography.

Start-ups to Benefit

Some of the companies like Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia and Orange had promoted to obtain more margins in tapping into a potentially profitable source of revenue. However, Internet activists state that this would be creating a two speed internet which would only benefit companies.

The rules could prove to be advantageous to start-ups which showcase their business or sell on the internet, would need to be able to compete on equal footing with bigger players and the latter would not be in a position to pay for privileged access to the end users. The Commission had stated that `the access to a start-up’s website will not be unfairly slowed down to make way for bigger companies. No service will be stuck because it does not pay an additional fee to Internet service providers and there won’t be gatekeepers to decide what you can and cannot access’.

Net Neutrality to Support Internet TV

The ban will be led by a fourteen month provisional period wherein companies could add surcharges though at reduced rates. The deal which was recently approved set out rules stating that telecom operators need to treat most of the internet tariff in an equal manner but the net neutrality rules will enable firms to support some services like the internet TV.

The agreement is the outcome of yearsof agitating on cutting down roaming charges and to define the approach of EU nation in regulating internet traffic especially with regards to the US adoption of net neutrality rules. ISPs would be able to support services in need of high quality internet connections namely internet TV as long as they do not impose on the overall quality of internet traffic.

Agreement to be Presented July – December this Year

The agreement is said to be presented between July and December this year for formal adoption to the European Union member states.The fourth largest grouping of MEPs in the European Parliament – The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) had earlier disapproved regulators in trying to suppress the plans in putting an end data roaming. However it was welcomed when the announcement was made. Guy Verhofstadt, President of the ALDE stated that `the great roaming rip-off’ was to be brought to an end’.

The group had accused the delay in the successful negotiation of the deal on member state that has been blamed for seeking to protect their national operators earlier. However, another member of the group, Marietie Schaake MEP reintroduced the attack on the net neutrality deal commenting that `the compromise reached now is a water-down version of the strong ambitions of the European Parliament’.

Global campaign manager at World Wide Web Foundation, Renata Avila added her comments that `despite claiming to protect net neutrality, the deal agreed by the Commission, Parliament and Council has decided to allow specialised services, but has then failed to define what is meant by this, leaving the door open for a two-tier internet, specialised services should be tightly defined and seen as the exception, not the rule’.

Protests Grow Against Facebook's Internet.org

Debates on Facebook’s `free mobile date’ – Internet.org

The reaction against Facebook’s `free mobile data’, Internet.org scheme has become known all over the world and recently around 65 advocacy organisations from 31 countries have signed an open letter to Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg objecting on Internet.org in an effort to bring about free internet service to the developing world, stating that the project `could disrupt the principles of net neutrality, threatening the freedom of expression, equality of opportunity, innovation, security and privacy’.

With Internet.org, Facebook has been partnering with several wireless carriers as well as other organisations in providing an app which tends to offer free access to some internet services, which include Facebook, in developing countries on mobile phones.

However, in spring, some publishers in India have withdrawn out of the program stating that it violated the principles of net neutrality, the concept that all internet providers should be treating all online services in an equal manner.Zucherberg who has defended the project states that it could co-exist with net neutrality and to give more people access to the internet, it could be useful to provide some free services which he had mentioned in his April 16 post to Facebook.

Leading to New Kind of Digital Divide

He further adds that `if someone is unable to afford paying for connectivity, it could be better to have some access than none at all’.

A spokesman informed BBC that, he is convinced that as more and more individuals tend to gain access to the internet; they will see the benefits and would want to use even more services.’ They are of strong belief that that they have worked with operators offering basic services to people at no cost and convinced that new users would want to move beyond the basic service and pay for more diverse and valuable services. Presently, open letter debates that the limited access provided by Internet.org could be leading to a new kind of digital divide.

Internet.org enables subscribes of partner mobile networks to utilise limited number of online services without the need to pay in making use of the data involved which could include Wikipedia, The Facts for Life health site which is run by the United Nations children’s Fund, BBC New, Facebook, Accuweather together with a variety of local news as well as sports results provider.

Nine Millions – Utilised the Scheme

In order to access the facility, users should use special Android apps, Internet.org’s website, Android app of Facebook or the Opera Mini browser and the web pages that are provided should be basic to minimise the data use and high resolution photos, videos and voice chat facilities are not allowed.

The project has been launched in Colombia, Guatemala, Ghana, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Malawi, the Philippines, Tanzania and Zambia. Network operators have made their contribution since they are of the belief that users will pay for broader internet access when they get a chance to attempt the free content that is offered.

According to Facebook, over nine million users have utilised the scheme as of date. However, the open letter from the digital rights groups that have been published on Facebook, conveys that the activist all over the world have intention of challenging its expansion.

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality – Guiding Principle of Internet

Net Neutrality is the guiding principle of Internet and preserves our right to freely communicate online which is defined as an open Internet. It is the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.In other words it means an Internet which allows and protects free speech wherein the internet provider provides the user with open networks and should not block or discriminate against any content or application which rides over the networks.

It is the principle which Internet service providers as well as government should treat the data on the internet equally without discriminating or making any charges differentially by user, site, content, platform, and application, type of attached equipment or mode of communication. Tim Wu, Professor of Columbia Law School states that the best way to explain network neutrality could be as a principle which could be used while designing a network which a public information network could end up being useful for all content, sites and platform, are equally treated.

Absence of Net Neutrality 

With the absence of Net Neutrality, phone and cable companies could carve the internet in fast and slow lanes while an ISP could slow down its rivals’ content or block political views disagreed upon. ISPs could also charge additional fees to the few content companies which could afford to pay for preferred treatments reducing the others to a slower tier of service thereby affecting the open internet.

Several debates are on with regards to Net Neutrality being required by law, especially in the United States. Lawrence Lessig, advocate of net neutrality has raised concern with regards to the ability of broadband provider using their last mile infrastructure to block Internet applications as well as content and to block out competitors. Neutrality advocate claims that the telecom companies need to impose a tiered service model to control and remove competitors, create artificial scarcity as well as oblige subscribers to purchase other uncompetitive services.

Important as Preservation 

Many are of the opinion that net neutrality is primarily important as preservation for current freedom and prominent supporter of net neutrality comprises of Vinton Cert, co-inventor of the Internet Protocol as well as Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web.

It is crucial for small business owners, entrepreneurs as well as for start-ups, who tend to depend on the open internet in order to launch their business, advertise their products and services, create a market, and distribute products to their customers. The need of open Internet is essential for job growth, competition as well as innovation.

It also tends to lower the obstacle of entry for entrepreneurs, start-ups and the small businesses by making sure that the Web is a fair and a level playing ground and the internet is used to reach the audiences and showcase their goods, services and applications. Interference from any company should not be permitted with this open marketplace. According to definition, ISPs are the gatekeepers to the Internet wherein without the Net Neutrality; they would take then every possible opportunity in order to profit from the gatekeeper control.