Are You Up for Net Neutrality?

Over the week, there has been a lot of hype over net neutrality in India. Net neutrality is the concept of providing free and open internet to everyone without discriminating and charging users separately. Several people aren’t able to use the internet due to the high connectivity charges and in the remote locations where it is inaccessible. This is why internet.org has taken up the initiative to give free access to all basic sites to increase the opportunities for people. More than 800 million people from 9 countries are now able to access free internet services through internet.org. In India, in states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala, people are able to access this service.

Internet.org however has a big drawback. The sites can be freely accessed only from Reliance network. This means that the other service providers will charge for accessing the same sites; so where does the freedom of net neutrality come? Then there is the Airtel One. This proposed service will county with a few service providers and people who sign up for Airtel One will only be able access the party services at a good speed. To access any other services they will have to pay an additional cost. For eg: If Whatsapp isn’t a part of Airtel One and you want to use it, you will have to pay an extra X amount, besides the monthly rental for Airtel One, to use Whatsapp. Now is this Neutrality?

Indian masses are striving hard to save the internet from such bias and even DigiMantra Labs has taken the initiative to raise their voices. People need internet freedom so that the deprived ones can freely access through opportunities. So stand up and give a shout to save net neutrality. Log on to www.savetheinternet.com and file your petition to save the internet today.

Always Digitizing!
DMLABS