The last few days have witnessed quite a few debates, views and judgements about “net neutrality”. Social media, public forums and newspapers have slashed the internet service providers to the status of evil lucifers. TRAI (Regulatory Authority of India) has created history by receiving 27000 feedback emails for one single issue within 24 hours.
With all this said, it does look like net neutrality has gone deep down into the sense of network freedom among Indians. But is that the real picture?
Two lakh emails in support of net neutrality within a few days is truly phenomenal but did you just forget that India has over 100 million active smartphone users alone?
Where are the rest of the netizens? Have they let the nerve-wrecking TRAI whitepaper slip off their consciousness? Or maybe the free internet theory just seems so captivating that they have failed to see the underlying devil.
Lend me your eyes for the next few minutes to understand why net neutrality is your unwritten right and why you deserve to enjoy every bit of it.
Net neutrality ishaving the freedom to choose how you can spend the 1 GB of your mobile data plan every month. Net neutrality is not letting your internet service provider decide if you want to shop at Amazon or at EBay. Net neutrality lets you take complete control of what you want to see, hear or download using the world’s most powerful tool, the Internet.
While we were happily “Facebooking” and “Skyping”, Internet Service Providers (ISP) raked in fat margins. They were so comfortably making money that they almost forgot that it is innovation that renders the art of survival in the business world. When internet-driven robust applications like Whatsapp started to take the limelight, ISPs where bitten by the jealousy bug!
The failure of internet service providers in creating novel and fair methods for generating revenue has led to this reprehensible tactic. ISPs have failed to realize that we are not toddlers who need parental controls to access the internet.
Consider this analogy. What if the electricity board decides to charge you more just because you changed to LED lights from the traditional CFLs? You outgrew them with your choice. That’s your smartness. They failed to keep up with the change. That’s their stupidity.
I believe every Indian must take to the issue seriously and communicate their support for net neutrality to TRAI. The internet was born to be free and so were we. Let us join hands to gift the coming generations, an unfettered access to the Internet.
