The telecom regulator has extended the deadline for stakeholder comments and counter-comments on its discussion paper on framing reasonable Internettraffic management practices, and also the governance structure of a multi-stakeholder body that will advise government on monitoring and applying net neutrality rules.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in a statement Thursday, has now sought comments by February 13 instead of January 30, and counter-comments by February 27 instead of February 13, following requests from stakeholders.
Earlier this month, the Trai had sought views for a roadmap on reasonable Internet traffic management practices that don’t infringe on rules around a free Web or hurt the consumer. It had also sought views on the governance structure of a proposed multi-stakeholder body that would advise the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on ways to monitor and apply net neutrality rules.
Trai’s paper had come more than two years after it had recommended net neutrality rules that backed an open Internet. It had suggested having a mechanism for reasonable Internet traffic management to ensure quality of services while preserving security of networks and providing for emergency services. There should also be provisions to implement court orders and government directions, as long as they are transparent and their impact on users is declared, it had said.
Trai is now attempting to define the framework for traffic management.
The regulator had recommended a free and open Internet in an August 2017 paper, which the telecom department accepted a year later. Amending the telecom licence rules in 2018 to incorporate the net neutrality guidelines had helped rest a heated debate in India on this globally controversial topic.
In the latest paper, Trai has advocated a reality check on current traffic management practices of telcos, and sought views on the need for a framework to thrash out a comprehensive list of reasonable practices for effectively tracking and enforcing net neutrality.
It has also sought views on ways to detect net neutrality violations, especially whether methods such as crowd sourcing or sample field measurements could be deployed, or whether an audit of processes undertaken by telcos for avoiding such violations was the way forward. Practices for traffic management would also require review from time to time, it added.
In 2017, Trai had recommended monetary penalties for breaching net neutrality rules, starting at Rs 50,000 per violation per day but capped at Rs 50 lakh.
To detect violations, the regulator had at the time mooted the multi-stakeholder body comprising telecom operators, Internet service providers, content providers, civil society organisations and consumer representatives.
But, in August 2018, while endorsing Trai’s broad recommendations, the government said actual monitoring and enforcement of the rules would remain with the Department of Telecommunications. The proposed multi-stakeholder body would play only an advisory role, it had said.
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