I came across an article about net neutrality in India, as Airtel has introduced 'Airtel Zero' plan. I am also against such a plan, and I have the signed the
petition at change.org, and also written to TRAI. I urge you to do the same, if you agree.
Here are a few excerpts from the article by Mr. Mahesh Murthy.
Here's what Airtel Zero is - it's a collection of apps that are chosen by Airtel and offered for free surfing by the public. So if you used Airtel Zero, your bandwidth meter stops ticking for any app that's part of the plan. Before you get excited, see what it really means.
First - this isn't for use by the poor - the real users will be all of us wanting to save a dime on bandwidth costs - which Airtel and others are raising anyway though global costs are falling.
Now you've heard that Flipkart has paid a chunk of money to be the e-com store featured on Airtel Zero. That means Airtel gets the money for the bandwidth from Flipkart - and in turns keeps other stores including yours out of this very select set. So if you're an e-com entrepreneur or a VC funding e-com companies, then tough luck - because you've just been locked out of the free internet that up to 200 million people will use in India. Airtel is busy striking expensive deals with others to be the exclusive real estate / matrimony etc type providers on this service.
It's horrible from the consumer point of view too.
We go from the open internet to the closed internet. Flipkart has paid through its nose for their spot and if you're in front of it, there's no competition on this free channel. They'll raise their prices on their products not just because they can, because you can't compare here - but because they have to, so that they can pay Airtel the ransom demanded.
And given that Airtel revenues are in the billions of dollars, you can be assured they wouldn't touch a thing unless it could mean another billion to them. So if you had a few dozens of crores of rupees - that is, a few dozen million dollars every year - lying around, you might have a chance of getting on to the free bus. If you don't, too bad, you're going to wither away and die. The Indian Internet dream will become a Sunil Bharti Mittal fiefdom. Oh, you can be sure that Sunil's son's little company, Hike Messenger, will be part of Airtel Zero - what's life without nepotism?
This is no longer the open internet - this is the closed network, where Airtel is the toll-tax collector. Airtel is the goonda asking for collection money to put your app in front of people. This is the old Airtel - the killer of VAS— back in full form.
What is truly terrifying is that the firms you'd expect to stand up for the open internet - Google and Twitter - have bought into this terrifying plan. They're on Airtel Zero - but Airtel gave them a free pass for now. Their logic is "Well, we're not paying, so who cares". Shame on you two and your shameful Indian managements who signed these deals - I'm sure if your owners and management in Silicon Valley knew the full impact of your decisions, you guys would be boarded out in a hurry.
Think a little, Google and Twitter. Sure, the first year, Airtel needs you, to get traction for their horrendous Zero product. But by year three, you'll need them. And you'll end up paying the tens of millions of dollars a year in hafta vasooli - protection money - to India's most thuggish telco. And who will you have to recover it from? The consumer again.
And who are you screwing over in the process, Google and Twitter? The consumer AND the young entrepreneur. Dear Google, you once said "Don't be evil". I don't know if you're watching - but your Indian team has just gone over to the dark side.
We're going back 30 years, to the days of the license raj, where the guy who owned the pipe could dictate what flowed through it. Can something stop this outrage, though? Can we get the open internet back?
Actually yes.
The thing is that the atmosphere and airwaves this stuff goes through is ours, the people of India's. And our government licensed it to these thugs, under our terms and conditions.
There's currently a move by the telco-lovers at supposedly-independent government organisation TRAI to make things like Aritel Zero which break net neutrality legal and kosher. We have 13 more days to stop them.
It's up to us - the general public and the entrepreneurs - to fight back and stop this internet holocaust.
I'd written another piece a that gave you a broader view of the same move. Some momentum has started on this front.
We have only a few days left to fight this. Here's what you can do:
2. Write directly to TRAI at "advqos@trai.gov.in". You can write what you like - but you could have words that say something like
Dear TRAI, I am writing to express my concern against the actions that telecom carriers are taking against Net Neutrality. Zero Rating Apps are one of these neutrality-breaking moves.
I believe the internet is a vital resource - if telecom operators can determine which apps I use for free and which I cannot, because of their secret backroom deals - this creates an environment that is deeply anti-competitive and deeply anti-consumer.
India is an inclusive country, and we cannot have such elitist structures on the internet. We have to allow the open internet, where consumers and entrepreneurs can be free to market and use any and all apps, without the burden of knowing which apps have free bandwidth pre-paid and which don't.
I am writing to ask you to demand net neutrality from telcos and specifically disallow Zero Rating Apps from all Internet Service Providers
Regards, {Your Name}
3. (Revised on Apr 12) Go over to http://savetheinternet.in - a site put together by some of our friends who care deeply about this. TRAI has asked 20 questions in their so-called "Consultation Paper" - here is a set of answers you can send them for each of those questions.
4. Write to the management at Google and Twitter to get them off any and all Zero Rating apps, including Airtel, so that they don't encourage rapacious telcos.
5. If you're part of an industry organisation like FICCI, CII, Assocham, IMC or others, get them to lobby on behalf of consumers and entrepreneurs around India. Ask them to put forward a simple message - yes to net neutrality and no to zero rating apps.
6. Spread this message by sharing this piece on LinkedIn, and ironically on the culprits Facebook, Twitter & Google Plus. Let's get all their members to see how evil their apparently-friendly social networks can be.
7. Get this message to your MP, and / or to Ravi Shankar Prasad or Prime Minister Modi. Make sure they know you care deeply about net neutrality and get them to legislate that neutrality-breaking activites cannot be allowed in India.
Thank you for your continued support.
