New Delhi: The issue of net neutrality is heating up. From netizens to political leaders to film actors, all are coming out in support of keeping net neutral in India.
In a tsunami of sorts, some two lakh people have already sent email to telecom regulator Trai from savetheinternet.in website on Monday. This is the number of responses only from one website which is campaigning for net neutrality.
Around 1.6 lakh people also signed on-line petition on change.org asking the government to maintain net neutrality in the country.
Trai has currently come out with a consultation paper on net neutrality in the county and will firm up a view on it soon. Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Monday that a departmental committee formed to look into the issue of the net neutrality will give a report by second week of May.
Airtel and Flipkart also came under attack from the netizens, for allegedly violating net neutrality.
Many angry consumers were also posting message on social media that they are uninstalling Flipkart app on their mobiles, which could hit the revenue of the e-commerce company and damage its reputation.
Airtel, has launched a new ‘Airtel Zero’ plan which will allow customers to access a variety of mobile applications for free, with the data charges being paid by companies whose websites are being accessed.
Activists are alleging that it will disturb the net neutrality in the country. Flipkart had shown interest to join Airtel’s zero plan. However, its founder clarified that it hasn’t signed the deal yet. “Services like Facebook, Google” continue to make use of similar services in India. Though, it’s somehow wrong when Flipkart, a local Internet firm, considers it,” Flipkart’s CEO Sachin Bansal said.
Also, reports say that the CCI is looking whether Airtel’s new ‘Airtel Zero’ plan is anti-competitive.
