Free basics

By allowing content providers to subsidize access to their sites, using the logic of Internet exceptionalism, India’s telecom provider is weakening its previous stance on net neutrality. Read more in Parminder Jeet Singh's piece for The Hindu.

ITfC has made submissions to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in response to the two consultation papers it released, one on free data and another a more general pre-consultation on net neutrality.

On the consultation paper on free data TRAI sought comments on alternate models of providing access to the Internet which did…

Following TRAI's historic ruling that prohibits the discriminatory tariffs for data services, Parminder Jeet Singh, in this op-ed in the Deccan Herald, discusses how TRAI has asserted its regulatory control over the Internet by ensuring data services are not discriminated based on content and are provided as a regulated public utility. 

Following Face book’s aggressive campaign to gain public support for Free Basics, Parminder Jeet Singh in this article in The Hindu argues how while the campaign utterly failed in its intended purpose, its unintended consequences may have done a lot of good to India in shaping a new level of consciousness around digital rights in India.

In light of the growing media focus on Facebook's 'Free Basics' and the overwhelming response to the TRAI consultation paper on differential pricing, Parminder Jeet Singh argues how differential pricing will invert the basic egalitarian design of the Internet in this article in Deccan Herald.

In a Q & A, Parminder Jeet Singh discusses the social underpinnings of the Net Neutrality discussion and the principles that should guide any regulation in this area. This segment was carried as part of Down to Earth's cover story for June 2015.

The recent public consultation by TRAI has catapulted the issue of 'net neutrality' into mainstream consciousness. In this article for the Economic and Political Weekly Parminder Jeet Singh delineates precisely what net neutrality is, and the important criteria it must meet to be truly egalitarian.

IT for Change provided its comments to the Committee on Net Neutrality of the Government of India's Department of Telecommunication. There are below and also enclosed. The submission highlights 'equality of opportunity' more than consumer's freedom of choice as the key principle underlying a net neutral Internet. It also goes into the problem…