TRAI invites Indians to comment on Net Neutrality Till 20th Aug 2015 Only So Hurry

[Anorion]

wrong interpretation of media, and people also. Wanted to point it out, but it is a small and trivial matter as far as the larger issue is concerned
airtel zero may have been a trigger or a tipping point, but is not the primary issue really
airtel is also lying, and using this opportunity to give a positive spin and take a stance
even though this particular case may check out as far as net neutrality is concerned, there have been cases where their policies clearly did not. This example is from before airtel zero: What Net Neutrality? VoIP Calls Such as Skype Could Cost Extra on Airtel | NDTV Gadgets

Airtel is smartly distancing itself from such disastrous decisions in the past by saying airtel zero is not against net neutrality, and airtel believes in net neutrality.

it is taking some time for me to read and understand the whole TRAI document, it is a little all over the place and cannot understand whether it is about ISPs or telecom and what are considerations for cable/tv services are doing there
going by face value
only 20% of those with mobiles use internet, and that too mostly on 2g. Those that do are reaching the limit of what available spectrum is there because of some hungry services like cloud back up and video. Also, whatsapp or skype is not answerable to you if something goes wrong in their service, in the same way and under the same rules that airtel is, for providing essentially the same service, that is unfair no? (this can be a simple procedural step that adds to costs... what if whatsapp had to verify your documents in the same way that airtel has to do).
FUP based connectivity is an already existing solution, which is what it will eventually come down to, I'm guessing.

Both sides appear to be fighting preemptively over something that might never happen or at least in a situation where we have too little data to meaningfully make decisions on what to regulate at this moment. This seems like a fight to keep stuff free, not really so much for freedom. there seems to be some kind of a drive to get off facebook. how about some kind of a drive to get on internet services? like ditch your hard drives and use cloud back up only? or a drive to delete all illegal mp3s and access music through legal means only.

 

[anirbandd]

Dear Customer

Over the last few days you may have seen a lot of conversation on our toll free platform Airtel Zero. It has been painted as a move that violates net neutrality and we have been very concerned at the incorrect information that has been carried by some quarters in the media as well as in social media. I wanted to take this opportunity to clear the air and reiterate that we are completely committed to net neutrality. Let me clarify.

Our vision is to have every Indian on the internet. There are millions of Indians who think that the internet is expensive and do not know what it can do for them. We believe that every Indian has the right to be on the internet. We know that if we allow them to experience the joys of the internet they will join the digital revolution.

Airtel Zero is a technology platform that connects application providers to their customers for free. The platform allows any content or application provider to enroll on it so that their customers can visit these sites for free. Instead of charging customers we charge the providers who choose to get on to the platform.
Is it the Providers who choose to get on the platform, or is it Airtel who chooses who comes onboard??
also, the providers who will pay you to enroll will undeniably be businesses [flipkart ] who are looking to attract more customers. if not businesses, it will be social networking sites, like fb and others who are looking to increase popularity. at most youtube and google mail.
of all of these, true internet is none. true internet signifies the permeability of information across the world. fb, youtube, twitter, none of them can stand up to that.
for god's sake, facebook was made by a man to make meeting up with women in his college easier. it evolved from that to being the "internet" for millions of people across the world. and flipkart is just india's largest online marketplace.

Our platform is open to all application developers, content providers and internet sites on an equal basis. The same rate card is offered to all these providers on a totally non discriminatory basis.
while you are thinking that you are providing internet access to the masses in the form of social networking sites, online shopping sites and video sharing sites, what you are doing in reality, is distorting the meaning of internet for the masses.
we understand that you stand to gain nothing from this as you are getting paid for MBs either way, but the road you are taking will undeniably lead to a smaller internet for some people.
here i am talking about the indian janata, because we love everything FREE FREE FREE. Free ke chakkar mein sab kho baithenge.

There is no difference between this and toll free voice such as 1-800. When a company selling an insurance product enrols into the toll free voice platform, customers who call the number are not charged but when they call a normal number they are charged. Calls are not blocked or given preferential treatment else our whole business would be jeopardized. Toll free voice helps the business owner engage with their customer. At the same time it provides the customer the benefit of reaching the business for free. Toll free voice is not a product or a tariff plan, it is merely a technology platform. We are simply taking the same concept of toll free voice to the world of data. As a result it is for the application developer and their customer to decide how data charges will be paid for. If the application developer is on the platform they pay for the data and their customer does not. If the developer is not on the platform the customer pays for data as they do now. Companies are free to choose whether they want to be on the platform or not. This does not change access to the content in any way whatsoever. Customers are free to choose which web site they want to visit, whether it is toll free or not. If they visit a toll free site they are not charged for data. If they visit any other site normal data charges apply.
Calling is SO much different than internet browsing.
Toll free numbers in India are primarily after sales service providers. When i have bought a costly product from a company , and there is an problem with the product, i would hardly appreciate calling up the service for the company on my expense and plead them to come and fix the issue. Calling is much more personal, and carries a much more urgency label than, say, posting a I-am-having-a-problem-with-my-product-please-send-someone-to-fix-it post on the company grievance mail/forum.
There is a reason that toll free customer care numbers are maintained by companies whcih have costly products.
Reality check: many other organisations have toll free numbers for other purposes. but do they share the same popularity as a leading electronics cos' customer service number? my company has a toll free emergency number. and yet i have my costly mobile's toll free and my bank's toll free customer care number number saved on my mobile.

Finally every web site, content or application will always be given the same treatment on our network whether they are on the toll free platform or not. As a company we do not ever block, throttle or provide any differential speeds to any web site. We have never done it and will never do it. We believe customers are the reason we are in business. As a result we will always do what is right for our customers.
Sure, but can you say, in writing, that someyears down the line, you will not start charging for the VOIP calls from OTT providers??
Lets face this: Voice Calls are still the major source of revenue that you have. If whatsapp, skype, viber and hike calling get popular, then your revenue sources will drop abysmally. Then what will you do? every tom dick and harry will buy a 3G data pack and carry out all his calling on these apps.
as a business, would you let your profit margins fall?

There has been a deliberate effort by some quarters to confuse people that we will offer differential speeds or differential access for different sites. This is untrue. After all we earn revenues from data. If there are more customers who are on the Internet the better it is for our business. Our revenues are not dependent on which sites they visit because we charge on the basis of consumption of mega bytes not which site they visited.
as i said, the major source of revenue is still from voice calls.
There has been no DELIBERATE effort from any quarters of the interwebs to undermine any of the efforts by you to bring free internet to the masses. the idea that is out on the internet now is just a logical conclusion to the problem that you will face.
if every tom dick and harry will buy a data pack and carry out all his calling duties on these OTT apps, your major source of revenue will drop, and a business tryin to maximise you profits, you will have to catch a hold of these calls going out through the OTT apps.
as a counter point, you may say that the revenue from tom dick and harry buying the data packs would up the revenue from data. yes, certainly viable. but you are already invested in setting up infrastructure for voice calling costing millions of rupees. will you be willing to loose that to dwindling revenues?
As for diffential speeds and throttling, we can not prove that unless we have some viable data for examination. that goes for you too; unless you provide definite proof for the same, there will be suspicions.

In sum our platform is a technology platform and is open to all application developers and their customers. Our platform only provides a choice of how the data that is consumed is paid for by any of the two - the application provider or their customer. Whether any application provider enrolls on the platform or not is entirely their choice. All we have is a technology. We do not have a product or tariff plan that we have launched. We simply have a platform. And every application developer and their customer is free to choose in an entirely neutral way what they want to do.

In conclusion, we stand fully committed to net neutrality to ensure the goals of the Prime Minister`s vision of digital India are met.
Thats what you say. What guarantee is there that the next MD & CEO will have the same views as you?

Regards,
Gopal Vittal
MD & CEO
Bharti Airtel Ltd.
India & South Asia

my views and questions in bold.

 

[vito scalleta]

^ okay, so is this wrong interpretation of media or airtel is lying

A lying telecom company ??? no way......

 

[REDHOTIRON2004]

my views and questions in bold.

I agree with that completely.

A lying telecom company ??? no way......

Why not? They haven't have done anything to prove otherwise.
Also, they have always taken steps to curb people interest for there own petty needs.
Like concept of FUP. Indian market didnt have the maturity to implement something like that as we already had slow speeds with limited bandwidth. Still, airtel went ahead and implemented FUP at ridiculous speeds and size of 5gb or 10gb.

Look at countries Like USA where too it have been implemented but they have a matured market. They already have high bandwidth and speed. So puttings caps at 150-300gb is not a issue at all.

These companies are not there to safeguard your interests. Thinking otherwise is stupidity. They won't miss a single chance to take advantage of people like you.
Nothing is free in this world. They are just showing you a glorious picture of some free apps while taking the whole internet away from us all.

 

[anirbandd]

Why not? They haven't have done anything to prove otherwise.
Also, they have always taken steps to curb people interest for there own petty needs.
Like concept of FUP. Indian market didnt have the maturity to implement something like that as we already had slow speeds with limited bandwidth. Still, airtel went ahead and implemented FUP at ridiculous speeds and size of 5gb or 10gb.

Look at countries Like USA where too it have been implemented but they have a matured market. They already have high bandwidth and speed. So puttings caps at 150-300gb is not a issue at all.

These companies are not there to safeguard your interests. Thinking otherwise is stupidity. They won't miss a single chance to take advantage of people like you.
Nothing is free in this world. They are just showing you a glorious picture of some free apps while taking the whole internet away from us all.

That was meant as a sarcasm, I guess.

 

[pratyush997]

I agree with that completely.

Spoiler

Why not? They haven't have done anything to prove otherwise.
Also, they have always taken steps to curb people interest for there own petty needs.
Like concept of FUP. Indian market didnt have the maturity to implement something like that as we already had slow speeds with limited bandwidth. Still, airtel went ahead and implemented FUP at ridiculous speeds and size of 5gb or 10gb.

Look at countries Like USA where too it have been implemented but they have a matured market. They already have high bandwidth and speed. So puttings caps at 150-300gb is not a issue at all.

These companies are not there to safeguard your interests. Thinking otherwise is stupidity. They won't miss a single chance to take advantage of people like you.
Nothing is free in this world. They are just showing you a glorious picture of some free apps while taking the whole internet away from us all

Sarcasm.

 

[vito scalleta]

I agree with that completely.


Why not? They haven't have done anything to prove otherwise.
Also, they have always taken steps to curb people interest for there own petty needs.
Like concept of FUP. Indian market didnt have the maturity to implement something like that as we already had slow speeds with limited bandwidth. Still, airtel went ahead and implemented FUP at ridiculous speeds and size of 5gb or 10gb.

Look at countries Like USA where too it have been implemented but they have a matured market. They already have high bandwidth and speed. So puttings caps at 150-300gb is not a issue at all.

These companies are not there to safeguard your interests. Thinking otherwise is stupidity. They won't miss a single chance to take advantage of people like you.
Nothing is free in this world. They are just showing you a glorious picture of some free apps while taking the whole internet away from us all.

It was sarcasm. no should believe the words from a telecom company without gng thru the nooks and corners of the entire text and comtemplating all possible meanings it can bear..

 

[$hadow]

A very well intended sarcasm.

 

[gameranand]

Net Neutrality: Trai says 'shrill voices' won't win debate | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis

****er has already taken the money from Telcos.

 

[$hadow]

I am not getting a good feeling from this. Now that they have received plenty of emails so they are taking the other route to make the decision stand up ugh.

 

[anirbandd]

Hah. Shrill voices.


Mofos. All of them are dirty mofos.

 

[topgear]

See what happened with all the e-mails sent :
Net neutrality: Trai exposes 1 million email IDs to spammers - The Times of India

We still have chance but till today only :
*mygov.in/group-issue/give-your-comments-or-suggestions-recommendations-committee-net-neutrality/

Register, login and lodge your complain before it's too late and do mention :

1. We DON’T WANT Net Neutrality to be defined by telecom companies
2. We DON’T WANT telecom companies to control WHAT we access on the Internet and they CAN’T charge us money for accessing certain websites/applications on the Internet
3. We WANT to be able to access anything, at any time, without having to pay more for it separately.
4. We DON’T WANT licensing for Whatsapp, Viber or any other app we use
5. Access to ALL content on the internet should be accessible to everyone.

 

[TheSloth]

Can I share above msg in WhatsApp to all friends?

 

[anirbandd]

^definitely...

 

[tkin]

I've done my part but this won't make any difference. TRAI is just testing the water, they'll do whatever they feel like.

 

[jkultimate]

^^ Me too done my part.

 

[saiyaman]

I can't help but thank the organization for it's fascinating intelligence on getting the people's comments to prevent something obviously bad which they could have done without this.

 

[topgear]

You did not get the whole picture. Getting our onions sure do feels great but it's ain't going to change a thing. Anyway, kudos to those four who have taken the initiative to spread public awareness about this.

 

[Ironman]

You did not get the whole picture. Getting our onions sure do feels great but it's ain't going to change a thing. Anyway, kudos to those four who have taken the initiative to spread public awareness about this.

Me Too .... Did my Part
--- useless though - we all know this ain't gonna change a thing.

 

[saiyaman]

You did not get the whole picture. Getting our onions sure do feels great but it's ain't going to change a thing. Anyway, kudos to those four who have taken the initiative to spread public awareness about this.

My post meant: Why does the TRAI have to ask us about this? Why can't they take the step to keep the internet as it is when the world knows that is the obvious right choice?

My post was meant to be sarcastic