Telecom Engineering
Net Neutrality
Dt: 3/6/15
Net Neutrality
(The overworked term like socialism and secularism)
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
Breathes there a man with soul so unwilling to get everything free?
Those who are championing the Net Neutrality(NN) are faulting the few Telcos which provide Internet service for planning to give preferential treatment for access to certain websites especially those offering e-commerce. The champions on NN invoke principles of equal opportunity, non-discrimination and freedom for everybody to enjoy the benefits of the Internet.
2. But just think of the discriminations which we are willingly suffering; all of them imposed by governments which are musically repeating that they are for the poor and the common man.
3. Like telecoms and Internet, Railways are also an utility. Between two distant stations and on the same train, for the same duration of travel there are different fares for different grades of comfort - unreserved general , three tier sleeper, two tier A/C and A/C 1st class. In addition, a good proportion of the reserved seats in each class is set apart for Tatkal and Premium Tatkal categories both at several times the normal price for the same class of travel. If this is not discrimination and an exploitation, what else is?
4. Take airlines. The private airlines don’t have business class but Air India owned by the welfare state, making losses to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees every year, has a business class which is mostly utilised by ministers, those who are all the while singing paens for the common man for the poor . If this discrimination is being suffered why is one objecting to preferential treatment offered by some private sector Internet providers to access websites of certain e-commerce companies?
5. our welfarist governments have an enviable record of exploitation because of scarcity. For eg. until telecoms were privatised, people who were booking trunkalls had ordinary and urgent and lightening categoreis. The lightening call was priced at 8 times ordinary trunk call. There were waiting times for telephone communications another utility owned by the government . One could book in the general category and wait for years and years to get the phone. Then Own Your Telephone (OYT) schemes, a preferential allotment of telephones was introduced and the deposit one had to make along with the application was five times the general category; and it was not bearing any interest; they too had to wait for some time and then a Tatkal scheme was introduced. One had to deposit eight times the OYT and 40 times the general category application deposit. All this was by government professing socialism , the Nehruvian variety.
6. The Railways have the track and signalling system. On the same tracks and subject to the same signalling system for the movement of passengers, there are Super Fast Expresses, Expresses and Passenger trains . The fares between any two stations on these 3 types of trains are different, although all of them use the same track and its signalling system.
7. On the same track run goods trains . The management of traffic for these two types of trains is different . Charging is also different criterion. The passenger trains are always given priority over the goods trains; the latter are simply stabled at railway slidings for the passenger trains to pass through. Passenger traffic is loss; goods traffic is overpriced to cover deficits on passenger service.
8. The same surface roads are used by bicycles, scooters /motor cycles, auto rikshas, private passengers cars goods carriers and trucks. The road tax for each class of these vehicles is different as they have different influence on the flow of traffic.
9. Lorries are not allowed into cities during certain daylight hours; vehicles pay toll charges on national highways at different rates for goods trucks, busses, passenger cars, autos & two-wheelers.
10. In the professional colleges (for example : engineering & medicine ) the fee charged for the government quota are different from the management quota although the education delivered and the degree awarded is the same.
11. The Post Office has ordinary post and speed post . It charges differently for these two classes of delivery.
12. On the Internet itself all information (voice, images, text and data) are packetized and each packet carries a label at the head to indicate that it is video, voice or text or data. Routers (switches) read the header and give priority for video packets to go through followed by voice, then text and then data last. This is the principle behind MPLS as applicable to routers.
13. With the advent of the Internet, I.T and mobile services the greeting cards hare disappeared. The post card is almost disappearing; these are substituted by SMS (short messaging service). The post office has lost its business for these types of traffic
14. Telcos are seeing the decline of SMS revenues because the SMSs are substituted by over the top (OTT) services and social messaging like whatsapp . VOIP ( voice over internet protocol) is eroding the voice revenues of Telcos.
15. More and more intelligent and capable mobile hand -held devices - smart phones are coming to access websites and have software facilitating the use of social media. The change is so rapid that ideas relevant to the old systems (the post office and monopoly fixed telephony are irrelevant).
16. Now the preferences offered by the likes of Airtel and Vodafone to access the website of those commercial companies who pay heavily to them would give access faster and the down loads from them would be faster than from others. How is this differential treatment for those who pay more (websites like Flip Cart, Amazon and Snapdeal) different from the airlines and railways owned by the government charging different prices for the same travel service that they are offering ?
17. It is worthwhile remembers that the Telcos paid huge amounts to get the spectrum which was auctioned. Government has so far collected about Rs. 3,50,000 cr from the Telcos for the spectrum. Although the spectrum was purchased, the Telcos have to pay for using the spectrum ( spectrum usage charges). It is like a person buying a flat and paying upfront but having to pay monthly rent for using that flat for living . In the US 50 MHZ is given for life whereas in India it is 15 MHZ, buyable every 20 years and additionally charged for use every year. This iniquity is not known to the NN champions.
18. The most overriding factor is with many levies that the government is imposing on the Telcos how would the Telcos get the investments required to continuously expand and upgrade the networks? Whether it is spectrum or other costs, all will have to procured from users of Telcos’ network. P-Telcos find it good to follow the governments which price the same services an d usage differentially for different classes of users and the service provider have to continuously upgrade the network equipments and software.
19. It is not that I am philosophically and ideologically a champion of the P-telcos. But I hold that the P-Telcos are having to resort to what appears to be iniquitous tariffs entirely because of the immoral practices of governments which are unabashedly professing common man’s interest, service for the poor, access for all and equal benefit to all citizens. It is entirely right for a rational body like the TRAI to thoroughly discuss all aspects of this problem titled Net Neutrality.
20. Unfortunately, populist politicians are making people to think that many services should be given away either freely ( electricity, Indiramma houses, KG to PG education including engineering & medicine etc,) or at fabulously low prices. This is illogical, immoral and unsustainable .
21. It is wrong and immoral to expect free or under -priced services . A balance has to be struck between the emergence of new forms of storage and dissemination of information/knowledge and the costs of the infrastructure that is required for it. (1,323 words)
END