A telecom department (DoT) panel is going to hold a meeting this week to discuss policy for the net neutrality in India. According to reports, this will be second meeting of the panel, which is responsible for examining net neutrality from a public policy perspective.
The panel will look into the advantages, disadvantages and possible economic impact on the telecom industry. It's notable the telecom regulator (TRAI) is already planning to start consultation process on the net neutrality.
The issue of net neutrality in India had taken centre stage after leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel announced (later retracted) charging users for voice calling services over the Internet.
The telecom operators have long demanded that regulation of the OTT services/players such as WhatsApp, Viber, Skype. Telcos complain that the OTT players have been reaping profits using their network and not sharing revenues with them.
"We believe there should be some kind of framework where we are not disadvantaged in terms of our core source of revenue and that is the context in which consultation will hopefully take place," Airtel recently said.
Source:ET