Highlights

• Internet access services should be governed by a principle that restricts any form of discrimination or interference in the treatment of content, including practices like blocking, degrading, slowing down or granting preferential speeds or treatment to any content.- TRAI
• This principle, it had added, would apply to any discriminatory treatment based on the sender or receiver, the network protocols, or the user equipment, but not to specialised services or other exclusions.
• It had also said that these would not apply to “reasonable traffic management practices” by the service provider.
•  India’s decision to uphold Net neutrality assumes greater significance given that in the U.S., the rules on Net neutrality were repealed.
• The decision, which came into effect in June, paves the way for service providers to block or slow down access to particular content for users.
• To implement Net neutrality, the regulator had recommended that the terms of licence agreements that govern the provision of Internet services in India be amended “to incorporate the principles of non-discriminatory treatment of content along with the appropriate exclusions and exceptions.”
• The regulator has recommended establishing a multi-stakeholder not-for-profit body for the monitoring and enforcement of the principles.
• Besides, the Telecom Commission also gave its approval to the new digital communications policy 2018 (new telecom policy)

Source: The Hindu