As I write this Egypt’s Free Basics initiative has been shut down for its 3 million customers availing of Etisalat’s internet service free of cost. And Google LOONS project reaches 3 million free internet service customer milestone in Sri Lanka. Here in India a lot of grist for the media mill has been at work here with several well known folks weighing in on the debate, with arguments getting a little emotive rather than objective.
Net Neutrality, as a concept is indisputable as it appears fair and egalitarian, so hard to oppose without sounding un-socialist. NN is essentially for allowing competition viz access, not necessarily pricing or speed. Let’s allow speed to be part of the NN debate in the Indian context since it is a hot button topic! In contrast in the USA the issue is about content cos (Netflix, YouTube, Disney) paying the ISP’s (classified as ‘information service providers’ as opposed to ‘common carrier’) to allow their content to move faster down the pipes to their customers!