Internet to remain open as govt approves net neutrality
July 11, 2018  21:34
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The Telecom Commission today approved net neutrality rules which bar service providers from discriminating against Internet content and services by blocking, throttling or granting them higher speed access.
Some mission critical applications or services like remote surgery and autonomous cars will however be kept out of the purview of net neutrality framework.
"The Telecom Commission today approved net neutrality as recommended by Trai expect some critical services will be kept out of its purview," Telecom Commission Chairman Aruna Sundararajan told reporters in New Delhi.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had recommended restrictions on service providers from entering into agreements which lead to discriminatory treatment of content on the Internet.
Trai had favoured tweaking of licensing norms of players to ensure "explicit restrictions" on discrimination in Internet access, based on content. 
The department of telecom will set-up a multi-stakeholder body for monitoring and enforcement of net neutrality comprising government representatives, IoT providers, telecom operators, civil society members and consumer organisations. 
The DoT will seek recommendations from Trai on traffic management for critical services.
TC also approved the new telecom policy --  National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018 -- for seeking approval of the Union Cabinet, Sundararajan said.
"Everybody in the meeting today said that digital infrastructure is even more important than physical infrastructure for India... CEO of Niti Ayog (Amitabh Kant) said that for...districts, we must ensure digital infrastructure is provided at the earliest. Therefore, India must have ease of doing business and enabling policy environment," she said.
The NDCP aims to attract USD 100 billion or about Rs 6.5 lakh crore investments, 40 lakh new jobs, 50 megabit per second broadband access to every citizen in the digital communications sector by 2022 with the help of reforms.  -- PTI
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