‘DoT panel report on zero rating an insult to intelligence‘

Yesterday the telecom department panel released its net neutrality report. The panel wants to regulate domestic calls offered by apps like Whatapp, Viber and others. But it wants the government to adopt a liberal approach towards international calls and messages. The panel also wants to allow zero rating services on a case-by-case basis. Rajeev Chandrashekar, former CEO of BPL Mobile and independent member of the Rajya Sabha believes the panel’s report on zero rating is insult to intelligence.Speaking to CNBC-TV18, he says the report is vague and the government needs to lay out clear rules with respect to net neutrality. The report needs to have hard coded rules, he adds.

Below is the transcript of Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s interview with CNBC-TV18's Shereen BhanQ: You have said you will challenge the Department of Telecommunication's (DoT) net neutrality report in parliament. What is the biggest flaw that you find in the report and do you think that this report is at all an improvement over the (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) TRAI consultation paper which you were against?A: No, if you remember the whole brouhaha of net neutrality started because of the perceived bias in the whole TRAI's approach towards net neutrality. Net neutrality is basically a very fundamental issue to do with protecting internet consumer rights and a free and fair open nature of the internet. This document is classic bureaucracy because while it talks about the core principles of net neutrality and I don't know where they got this new phraseology of core principles of net neutrality. It also says that there is no need to hardcode the definition of net neutrality. At the very least what the government is expected to do is to create a hard coding and a definition of the exceptions to the net neutrality. The rules of the game that the Telcos have to follow. Q: So you are saying that the government hasn't defined net neutrality. What is it that you would have liked them to hard code into the principles?A: We must understand it very clearly, the government's job is not to lay out principles or ideologies or guiding principles. The government's job is to lay down specific rules that then becomes the rules of the game that have to be followed by the telcos and those become the rights of the consumers.This is not about general talking but the government has an administrative duty to lay out the rules in specific non-vague, non-ambiguous which become therefore the rules that have to be followed by the telecom companies and the access providers.

Q: What about zero rating then because the panel report says allow zero rating on a case by case basis? Would you say that also is a cop out? A: Yes, it is because it is ridiculous because in other parts of the report they say we do not want discriminated access to the internet and zero rating is just that and to say that we want these guiding principles of net neutrality in annexure four and then go out in the same breath and say that TRAI will look at zero rating on a case by case basis -- either is to believe that people are not going to read the full report or some parts are going to read annexure four and some parts are going to read the other parts is bizarre. It is really an insult to the intelligence of a lot of people who are following this debate. They could have done a far better approach towards the whole concept of net neutrality. I understand that there is a challenge to balance the interest of telcos and the free fair open internet and the consumer rights but the DoT should have done in my opinion a far more fact based, far more transparent, far more qualitative and quantitative approach towards this rather than say, we believe in these ideologies and philosophies as if they are philosophers, they are not. They are a government ministry and they should be administering based on data and facts.

watch video for the entire interview