Startup founders, including Paytm, Zerodha, PhonePe, urge TRAI to strengthen net neutrality

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had upheld net neutrality norms in 2016

Around 129 startup founders, including Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, PhonePe's Sameer Nigam, Zerodha's Nithin Kamath, Razorpay's Harshil Mathur, and People Group's Anupam Mittal, have sent a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) requesting it to strengthen the net neutrality principles that were outlined by the government in 2016.

This is in response to suggestions made by telecom service providers Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea that internet companies should pay telcos for telecom network costs based on the traffic these platforms generate and other such parameters.

Critics have said that this proposal of the telcos can dilute net neutrality principles and that it may drive out smaller players out of the market, limit user choice and so on.

The letter addressed to PD Vaghela, chairman of TRAI and Akhilesh Kumar Trievdy, advisor in TRAI, said, "In context of the recent demands of the TSPs and its implications for the economy, we urge TRAI to further strengthen the principles in the 2016 regulations, rather than dilute it."

Net neutrality encompasses the idea that internet service providers (ISPs) and telecom companies should treat all online traffic equally, and refrain from any form of discrimination or favouritism towards specific websites, applications, or online services.

Also read: Debate over net neutrality rears its head again

The letter was also signed by Rohan Verma of Mappls, Murugavel Janakiraman of Bharat Matrimony, Shreyas Srinivasan of PayTM Insider, Ritesh Malik and others.

"As a key representative of the Indian economy and internet innovation ecosystem, we are writing to urge the Authority to continue their support for Net Neutrality principles and caution against any move towards overregulation of internet services being described as Over-The-Top (“OTT”) services, which may have discriminatory consequences," the letter read.

The letter has been composed under the banner of Save the Internet, a campaign which was first launched in 2015 when a similar debate over net neutrality had erupted.

The campaign, then too, had received widespread support from citizens who sent letters in troves to the TRAI urging the regulator to rule in favour of net neutrality. In 2016, TRAI issued regulations that upheld the principles of net neutrality.

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