Telecom Commission Approves Net Neutrality, New Telecom Policy

TRAI had come out with a list of recommendations around keeping the Internet free and open to all in November 2017.

(Photo: iStockphoto)

The Telecom Commission on 11 July approved net neutrality rules, which bar 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 the net-neutrality framework.

"The Telecom Commission (TC) today approved net neutrality as recommended by TRAI expects some critical services will be kept out of its purview," Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told reporters in New Delhi.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had recommended restrictions on service providers from entering into agreements, which lead to discriminatory treatment of content on the Internet.

The TC also approved the new telecom policy - National Digital Communications Policy 2018 - for seeking approval of the Union Cabinet, Sundararajan said.

Everybody in the meeting today said that digital infrastructure is even more important than physical infrastructure for India. CEO of Niti Ayog (Amitabh Kant) said that for districts, we must ensure digital infrastructure is provided at the earliest. Therefore, India must have an ease of doing business and an enabling policy environment.

Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan

An official, who was part of the meeting, said that the TC has approved installation of around 12.5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots in all gram panchayats with viability gap funding of around Rs 6,000 crore by December 2018.