Net Neutrality - TRAI Consultation on Traffic Management Practices, Multi-Stakeholder Body

Telecom regulator TRAI on Thursday started an industry-wide consultation on framework for network traffic management practices and multi-stakeholder body outlined in the net neutrality principles.

The consultation paper issued by TRAI on Thursday discusses various challenges in measurement of internet traffic and compilation of reasonable traffic management practices.

"The objective of this consultation paper is to deliberate the issues related to traffic management practices and the Multi Stakeholder body... It discusses about establishment of a framework to formulate traffic management practices. The paper also discusses about the issues related to composition, function, Governance Structure of multi-stakeholder body," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said.

The discussion paper is "limited" to the issues on which additional recommendation were sought by Telecom Department in its letter on July 2018, TRAI said while pointing out that the regulator has no intention to revisit its principles on Net Neutrality and broad approach recommended earlier.

TRAI said that comments on issues raised in the consultation paper should be submitted by January 30 and counter comments by February 13, 2020.

The net neutrality principles -- approved by the telecom department in 2018 -- prohibit service providers from discriminating against internet content and services by blocking, throttling or according preferential higher speeds.

Simply put, this means that entire internet traffic should be available to everyone on equal terms without any discrimination, and service providers cannot indulge in practices such as throttling any web traffic or providing fast lanes for specific content.

Globally, there have been widespread concerns on potential for discriminatory treatment of online traffic by the entities that control access to the internet. These concerns regarding non-discriminatory access have become the centre of a global policy debate, often referred to as the debate on `net neutrality'.

TRAI had earlier barred platforms like Facebook's Internet.Org and Airtel Zero which allowed free access to select websites, to check 'gate-keeping' in cyber space. TRAI, thereafter, also mooted restrictions on service providers that bars them from entering into agreements which lead to discriminatory treatment of content on the Internet. Based on TRAI recommendations, Telecom Commission in 2018 approved net neutrality rules which prohibit service providers from discriminating against Internet content and services by blocking, throttling or granting them higher speed access.

Some mission critical applications or services like remote surgery and autonomous cars will however be kept out of the purview of net neutrality framework.

While clearing the net neutrality rules, DoT had sought additional recommendations from TRAI on necessary Traffic Management Practices (TMPs) and composition, functions, role and responsibilities of the multi-stakeholder body for monitoring and enforcement.

"Any traffic management practice must only be applied to handle concerned exceptional circumstances and not for any commercial considerations," TRAI has said in its consultation paper on Thursday. It has sought stakeholder views on types of practices currently deployed by access providers to manage traffic.

"Out of these practices, which ones can be considered as reasonable from perspective of Net Neutrality. Whether list of Traffic Management Practises (TMPs) can be prepared in advance or it would be required to update it from time to time? If later is yes, then what framework would be required to be established by Multi-Stakeholder Body to keep it up to date?," TRAI has asked.

It has also sought views on set up needed for detecting violations of Net Neutrality.

Department of Telecom (DoT) had also asked the Trai to "recommend the composition, functions, role and responsibilities of the multi-stakeholder body" that will play an advisory role to DoT regrading monitoring and enforcement of net neutrality principles. Multi-Stakeholder Body will be responsible for providing support to Telecom Department in monitoring and enforcement of net neutrality principles and submit requisite reports to the Government based on monitoring and investigations.

"What should be the composition, functions, roles and responsibilities of multi-stakeholder body considering the decision of DoT that multi-stakeholder body shall have an advisory role and formulation of TMPs and Monitoring and Enforcement rest with DoT?," TRAI said. PTI MBI

Revealed: Facebook’s Free Basics Violates Net Neutrality and Isn't Even Helpful, Says Report

It's been two years since Facebook’s Free Basics has been in the public domain and ever since then it has been at the centre of constant debate. While India has already banned the app stating its net neutrality defying nature, a recent report by activist group Global Voices has found out that not only does Facebook’s Free Basics violate net neutrality principles, it’s not proving that helpful to even those who are using it.

People using the Free Basics app have to survive with a basic Bing search engine, a Johnson & Johnson-sponsored baby advice app, and a number of other sponsored apps. In fact, Facebook is the only popular social media app accessible on the Free Basics app. The app in question here doesn’t even come with an email platform support.

Facebook’s Free Basics was banned by India's Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) last year for violating the principles of net neutrality. Through the Free Basics app, Facebook aims to help bridge the digital divide in developing countries in parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

The initiative, which is now active in 63 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, has become a crucial part of Facebook's strategy to become the most popular and powerful social platform on earth.

The app also comes with certain language and content limitations that doesn't make its case stronger either. For instance, if you access Free Basics in Pakistan, you would only be able to access it in English and Urdu. Thus, leaving out other major languages spoken in the country like Punjabi, Pashto etc. Further, most of the apps featured inside are US and UK-based, with only a few local options available.

The Global Voices report only takes into account data collected from Columbia, Mexico, the Philippines, Ghana, Pakistan, and Kenya and not all of 63 countries that the initiative is currently active in. According to the report, Facebook is just acting like an ISP and collects users’ traffic data. It says, "For users who want to get online with Free Basics, Facebook makes and enforces the rules of the road, and is the primary benefactor of profits generated by user data."

Facebook's take on the entire issue is quite surprising. According to the Mark Zuckerberg led company, limited internet access is better than none, and it’s doing its part by connecting those who live in rural or impoverished areas.

Google, Amazon Join Online Protest of Net Neutrality Change

Big names in the technological world like Google, Amazon, Facebook have all come together for a common cause. An online protest that aims to counter Republican's plan of rolling back net neutrality rules has got the support of over 70,000 supporters.

The sites and organisations that have joined their hands in this mission includes Twitter, Amazon.com, Google and Facebook. Today, these commercial site big weights will be joining the forces with several of the online activists and businesses and tell users about the change in plans at the White House and ask the visitors to start contacting Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where Republican Chairman Ajit Pai, who was appointed by President Trump himself, and is fighting to get the rule axed once for all.

The protests are a result of Democratic lawmakers making loud noises pertaining to the issue. With Republicans going all out to dump net neutrality out of the window, Democratic senators have also decided to fight the issue with all their might. They have asked FCC to get ready for a massive surge of comments starting today

Websites that have decided to take part in the protest will be displaying prominent messages on their home pages and then encourage its visitors to take action.

With the July 17 remarks deadline coming closer, FCC has already received an overwhelming support of over 5.6 million comments.

A similar online protest five years ago helped in playing a major role in persuading Congress in to abandoning legislation backed by movie studios to combat online piracy.

American lawmakers are in a race to pace through the net neutrality proceedings as Pai is heading towards a vote possibly later this year at the FCC. Pai's opinion on the net neutrality rule has been known since the rule came into affect in 2015. In 2014, when FCC was still preparing the rule, Trump called the regulation "Obama's attack on the internet."

Let's see if the protest churns out any results.

What Does Trump Mean For Tech and Startups?

Last week saw America going through a historic election, which saw Donald Trump being elected as the 45th President of the United States. Since the result, there has been a sense of shock all around the world, with a vast majority of people not being able to comprehend what really happened. But now, the dust is finally starting to settle and people are slowly starting to accept the reality. Here, we evaluate, what Donald Trump as the President of the largest economy on Earth means for the Tech and the Startup sector.

Privacy and Encryption

So, this particular issue basically has Apple right in the centre. It all dates back to when the FBI while investigating shootings in San Bernardino had asked the tech giant to weaken the encryption on its famous iPhone so as to help them in investigations. However, Apple ended up refusing FBI's request stating that the personal privacy of its iPhone users should take precedent. While a majority of tech biggies seconded Apple's decision, Mr Trump wasn't impressed.

Speaking on the issue during his Campaign rally in February 2016, he said, "Boycott Apple until such time as they give that information."

He further echoed the same views during a February 2016 interview with Bloomberg, "I would come down so hard on [Apple chief executive Tim Cook] his head would be spinning all of the way back to Silicon Valley."

One thing is very clear, user privacy when using technology is something that will continuously rear its head during Mr Trump's Presidential term. Further, his views on the surveillance state will also be an issue of concern. Though we haven't heard any firm policy on it yet, but Mr Trump did talk about his intention to restore the Patriot Act, which would once again give the NSA the power to collect bulk data on American's phone records which was earlier taken away by the Congress. Though his boycott Apple pitch might have been in the heat of the moment, but it did clear his views and attitude towards privacy and encryption.

Foreign talent in Silicon Valley

Mr Trump's victory has cast a shadow on the future of the H1-B visa which is considered quite important in the US tech sector. American companies often bring talent from foreign land to fill their demand for skilled engineers and developers. Though the visa grants a temporary residency, but the tech companies can choose to sponsor their employees so as to make them remain in the US indefinitely.

During CNN Republican debate in March 2016, Mr Trump said, "I know the H-1B very well. And it's something that I, frankly, use, and I shouldn't be allowed to use it. We shouldn't have it. Very, very bad for workers. And second of all, I think it's very important to say, well, I'm a businessman and I have to do what I have to do. When it's sitting there waiting for you, but it's very bad. It's very bad for business in terms of — and it's very bad for our workers and it's unfair for our workers. And we should end it."

But since then Mr Trump seemed to have had change of mind (not heart, we're sure). According to him, the H1-B visa is being wrongly used to bring in cheaper labour to America, rather than skilled one.

So, basically, the conclusion here is, the President-elect is okay with highly-skilled immigration, particularly when it comes to immigrants coming to study at top US colleges. Under President Trump, we could see the H1-B visa

It seems he will either alter or completely abolish the H1-B visa and try to enforce an alternative that clamps down on the abuse he presumes is being inflicted by the current system.

America's preparations for Cyberwar

According to research firm Forrester, Mr Trump is most likely to face a cybercrisis within the first 100 days of assuming office.

So, while there have been long discussions on how the new President will handle the control of the nuclear codes, there have also been major concerns over how he is most likely to handle the massively growing cyber threat from the likes of Russia, China and several other stateless hacking groups.

Speaking on the matter during the Presidential debate in September, Mr Trump said, "It is a huge problem. I have a son - he's 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers. It's unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe, it's hardly doable. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing. But that's true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better. And certainly cyber is one of them."

Many deemed this statement as an opinion of a tech-illiterate grandpa who did not understand how Internet functioned.

The Republican President-elect also failed to recognise FBI's lead in blaming Russia for hacking the Democratic National Convention - one of the several cyberattacks that played a major role in Trump winning the Presidential battle.

According to Trump's campaign website, his administration will do an "immediate review of all US cyber defences and vulnerabilities". He is also in the favour of developing the US's offensive capabilities so the country could retaliate against any cyberattack.

Amazon's Future at Stake

Jeff Bezos, the founder of e-commerce giant Amazon, shares a not so great relationship with Mr Trump. It was Bezos' owned Washington Post that didn't shy away from taking on Trump's campaign out in the open. It was the very newspaper that had first published the now infamous video of Mr Trump making untasteful remarks about women and bragging about sexual assault. Mr Trumps considers Amazon as a company that is anti-competitive and is avoiding tax.

Appearing in the Sean Hannity Show on Fox News in May 2016, he mentioned, "Amazon is getting away with murder tax-wise. [Bezos is] using the Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don't tax Amazon like they should be taxed."

It did not stop at this. In various tweets, Mr Trump had accused Mr Bezos directly of making use of the Washington Post as a way to reduce Amazon's tax. However, it is important to note that the Washington Post isn't part of Amazon. It is a company that Mr Bezos owns privately, so what Trump is suggesting isn't possible logically.

Responding to Trump's accusations on Twitter, Mr Bezos started a #SendDonaldToSpace hashtag saying that he would be very happy to fund a rocket that would take Mr Trump on a one-way trip into space.

It is important to note that on the day of the results, Amazon's stock nosedived drastically in the anticipation of what the future holds for the company.

Net Neutrality

It has been quite some time that there have been long discussions about the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) wanting to control the internet traffic so as to provide internet fast-lane for major, data-intensive services like the Netflix. But, many consider this as against the very spirit of equality that the internet stands for.

From what can be evaluated from Trump's campaign, Net Neutrality is something which he understand very little about, and it is something he doesn't want to spend too much time on. It is for sure not on the list of his priorities for now.

The future of energy tech

Businesses built around renewable energy are considered as an important area of growth for the US. In fact, in order to provide the much needed push to the growth of the companies dealing with it, the past US governments had offered attractive subsidies so as to lure in the customers who could not afford renewable energy on their own.

But, according to the new President of the US, "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."

According to Mr Trump, coal is the area that requires the maximum support of the government as it has suffered huge losses because of the false climate change issue that made the government shift focus from coal to renewable energy. Mr Trump thinks that the whole climate change issue is a big hoax which shouldn't get as much attention as it is getting.

During his campaign, Mr Trump had promised to "unleash America's $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas reserves, plus hundreds of years in clean coal reserves." The money for it may in part come by doing away the current subsidies being offered by the government for various renewable energy efforts.

What about the Startup industry

Experts predict that the financial markets are most likely to face a lean time for sometime now. But, one needs to understand that there is no correlation whatsoever between the success of a startup and strong financial markets. Investors who understand this are most likely to act rationally and bear the rewards over the long term for their rational move.

As for the entrepreneurs, they will have to tread carefully for sometime till the picture becomes more clearer and not act irrationally. They need not to confuse the uncertain times with a lack of opportunity, but remain optimistic and rational. They also need to be aware of the macro environment they're operating in and act accordingly.

The only thing that can be done now is to wait and watch, and see how many of his Campaign promises/sayings Mr Trump actually stands on.

[Top Image- Shutterstock]

Net Neutrality Violation Against Freedom of Speech Says Nasscom

The debate on net neutrality has caught the eye of the public in a big way. Videos are being made, petitions are being signed, Facebook posts regarding it are getting viral. In the wake of the recent controversy regarding net neutrality, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) asked the government to define net neutrality.

The association also suggested that the best way forward right now is to try to create a synergy between telecom companies and over the top players.

A statement given by Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar said, "Since the regulatory framework is all-embracing, net neutrality principles need to be very clearly articulated by the government, and adopted by the regulator in a harmonious manner. It will not be useful if different regulators adopt different views of net neutrality. "

The association will also share its answers on telecom regulatory authority of India released consultative paper, ' Regulatory Framework for Over the top services'.These over the top players mentioned above includes those operators which make use of telecom network in order to provide their services.YouTube, Skype, Facebook and Twitter etc. will fall under this category.

According to Nasscom, the advent of internet, ease of accessibility of social media due to high proliferation of mobile technology, internet of things (iot), big data and analytics, cloud etc. along with innovation and Digital India and a phenomenal growth in startups, has given rise to the perfect junction for a breakthrough in country's economic development and transformation.

According to a statement given by Sanjeev Bhikchandani, chairperson of the Nasscom Internet Council, "Any stifling regulations restricting access to Internet or Internet platforms and services would not only seriously hamper this prospect of development, but also suppress growth and success of innovation-driven tech startups and SME companies. "The statement was given to the Economic Times.

The industry body also stated the fact that the key guiding principles of net neutrality are about providing the users with a right to make an informed choice in selecting and accessing legal services or content on the Internet.
This right of the user to access any legal content on the Internet will be hugely compromised when the regulations will not be able to stop price-based and non-price based discrimination being proposed by telecom service providers.

"The other key priority is the proliferation of an affordable telecom infrastructure. These essential building blocks of the digital revolution are not contradictory and can and need to be synergised," said Chandrashekhar.

The association's president also stressed on the need to devise a way in which the over the top players and telecos can work together. He added, "We must look at how to synergise these two so that data consumption goes up, telcos get their revenue from the data, and the development of apps is continued by entrepreneurial companies."

The Future Of Broadband Technologies [Infographic]

The invention of the Internet has made it infinitely easier for people all over the world to communicate and engage in business with one another. Nowadays, it is difficult to think of a single facet of life that has not been improved in some way by the Internet. Whether you use the tremendous network for your entertainment or financial purposes, you have a connection present that defines the way you go about your day-to-day activities. That said, what if service providers or interested government agencies placed limits on what you could do with the time you spend online? The expanding nature of the Internet has raised numerous concerns regarding website content and the services provided by Internet companies.

Many of these problems revolve around the concept of net neutrality and how any form of online regulation will violate it. There is widespread concern about what these violations could mean in the future, leading to a multitude of questions regarding the ethics of regulatory actions. Subjects involve things such as the nature of internet service providers and the direction in which broadband is moving. To understand these concerns, one must first understand the core concepts, and why they are so vital to the Internet’s operation.

In the United States, $210 Billion dollars were spent on investments made by cable companies over that last decade to upgrade and expand U.S. Broadband networks, and consumer-purchased broadband connection speeds have double since 1997. Also, 85% of Americans have access to at least 100 mbps, while 54% of Europeans have access to at least 30 Mbps.

To learn more about net neutrality, check out the infographic below created by the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s online Master of Science in Electrical Engineering program.