Net neutrality: Entrepreneurs hit back at COAI for terming startups' letter to TRAI as 'misinformation'

The COAI has been maintaining that the proposed fair share charge does not affect access to an open internet

Entrepreneurs, including Paytm's Vijay Sekhar Sharma, on October 13 hit back at telecom body Cellular Operator's Association of India (COAI) for terming a letter addressed to the government on net neutrality and signed by over 130 startup founders, as "misinformation".

"Uncompromised net neutrality has been the cornerstone of India's Digital success. I am sure the same will be upheld. I don't think there is any misinformation or someone is misled in the signed letter from all startup founders here," Sharma said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Also read: MC Explains: Debate over net neutrality rears its head again

Over the past few weeks, startups and telcos have locked horns over the latter's proposal of charging a network fee from over-the-top (OTT) companies. Startups and many Indian companies have criticised the proposal, alleging that it goes against the principles of net neutrality.

In the startups' letter to TRAI, whose signatories included Paytm's Sharma, PhonePe's Sameer Nigam, Zerodha's Nithin Kamath, Razorpay's Harshil Mathur and People Group's Anupam Mittal said that the telcos' demand of charging a network fee can drive out smaller players out of the market, limit user choice and so on.

On October 12, COAI, whose members include Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, termed this letter as "propaganda activism" and "fear-mongering" and urged TRAI to not consider the submission.

Deepak Shenoy, Founder and CEO of Capital Minds said, "How dare COAI say that people were misled? I am completely with net neutrality and no usage-based fees. Telcos are only pipes, period. COAI wants to mislead you all, and the govt, by trying to attack the people fighting for real net neutrality, like Nikhil." (Nikhil Pahwa is one of the founders of Save the Internet)

Deepak Abbot, Co-founder of Indiagold, said, "We were not misled in supporting this. I wholeheartedly believe that network usage fee violates net neutrality."

Ashish Sinha of NextBigWhat said, "For India to become a leader in digital space, we need to support net neutrality. The network usage fee completely violates the entire idea behind net neutrality - in fact, it completely goes against the DPI philosophy of the govt and will hurt the startup/innovation ecosystem badly."