THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:Any challenge posed to net neutrality is a challenge to the right of freedom of expression guaranteed to a citizen by the Constitution, Director of Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) George Varghese has said.
He was speaking at a talk series on the topic ‘Will Net Neutrality be a Reality?’ organised jointly by the Computer Society of India Trivandrum Chapter and the Kerala State IT Mission. Net neutrality is a concept in which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) treat all traffic and content on their networks equally and do not give preferential access to a few.
“Efforts to stifle net neutrality restricts a person from sending and receiving information. This is a violation of an individual’s Constitutional right on freedom of speech and expression as well as the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Varghese said.
Stating that net neutrality should be protected at any cost, Varghese added that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which is examining the issue, should think about other methods by which ISPs can increase their revenue.
Varghese also demanded the enactment of a legislation to prevent ISPs from tampering with net neutrality in the country. “It is very much evident that there is no other motive for making such restrictions other than increasing the revenue of telecom companies,” he said.
Jiji John, vice-president (Broadband), Asianet Satellite Communications Ltd, presented the other side of the debate by stating that it was a misconception to assume that internet users currently enjoy net neutrality.
“The Net is already not neutral in many ways. The choking of bandwidth due to increase in use of WhatsApp and Facebook, have forced telecom companies to provide faster internet speeds for high-paying corporate users at the expense of individual users,” he said.
Jiji John explained that telecom companies, which made huge investment to get spectrum allocated, have already stated that if preferential treatment is not given for certain internet services, then the usage charges will have to be hiked six-fold.
“Even TRAI has said that in the next five years, the data usage over internet will be five times the current usage. Telecom companies are of the view that they will become bankrupt if Over the Top services such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype are not charged.” Jiji John said.
John cautioned that the flip side of Internet Service Providers giving preferential treatment to big players is that new companies, especially those in the e-commerce sector, will not to able to grow.
Senior Journalist M G Radhakrishnan moderated the session. Earlier, inaugurating the talk series, Executive Director of C-DAC B Ramani touched upon various issues such as cyber security and the phenomenal rise in the number of mobile internet users in the country.
Sreekanth P Krishnan, chairman of Computer Society of India, Trivandrum Chapter and Mohammed Safarulla, Director of Kerala State IT Mission, also spoke on the occasion.