Network Neutrality Archives - Tech Law Forum @ NALSAR

‘Search Bias’ Under Indian Competition Law

Posted on August 6, 2019March 16, 2023 by Tech Law Forum @ NALSAR

The following post has been authored by Vishakha Singh Deshwal, an LLM candidate at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Studies (WBNUJS), Kolkata. Here she analyses an emerging issue at the intersection of technology and competition law.

Every enterprise wants its Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to appear among the top links on search engines because these links get the most clicks. Research reveals that the 10 highest-ranking generic search results on the first page together generally received approximately 95% of all clicks on generic search results.[1] While some enterprises pay huge advertisement costs to ensure that their links appear at the top (paid links), others resort to Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) from a service like the SEO services in Provo
to acquire top spots among unpaid links. SEO may include regularly uploading quality content to the website, creating a user-friendly browsing experience, ensuring that the website is compatible with computers and hand-held devices, engaging in social media marketing, etc.

Net Neutrality And Economics 101 (Part II)

Posted on August 16, 2018November 12, 2019 by Prateek Surisetti

In Part I, I attempted to provide an overview of the ISP market structure, market players and associated economic phenomena. In Part II, we will be discussing the more specific topic of Net Neutrality and its intersection with economics.

Please note that over the course of the ensuing write-up, I have referred to two kinds of fees:

Network Neutrality Around The World : A Basic Overview

Posted on July 26, 2018November 12, 2019 by Prateek Surisetti

Network Neutrality () refers to a network wherein participants are effectively blind to the nature of data flowing through the network. Another way of defining NN is a network wherein participants are restricted from differential treatment of data flow. Please understand that the definitions provided above are, in cliché speak, two sides of the same coin. Even if a participant can distinguish the nature of data flowing through a network, the participant is considered to be effectively blind, if said participant doesn’t interfere with the data flow. I have discussed the basic concepts and issues surrounding NN here.

TRAI’s Consultation Paper on Net Neutrality and the Regulatory Approach to Net Neutrality in India

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Ashwin Murthy

An explanation of the regulatory and policy approaches analysed by the TRAI in their Consultation Paper

RELIANCE JIO: REGULATORY AND PRIVACY IMPLICATIONS

Posted on September 24, 2016 by Balaji Subramanian

Ed. Note.: This post, by Sayan Bhattacharya, is a part of the NALSAR Tech Law Forum Editorial Test 2016.

In the world of technology dominated by a power struggle in terms of presence and absence in data circles, Reliance Jio has probably made the biggest tech news of the year with its revolutionary schemes. By adopting a loss-leader strategy of immediate loss and ultimate dominance, Reliance Jio has promised its subscribers stellar features like free voice calls, extremely cheap data packages, abolition of national roaming charges and striking down extra rates on national holidays on shifting to its network. This is set to significantly affect competition by taking India’s data scenario from a data scarcity to data abundance mode.

Meet the New Internet, Same as the Old, Old Internet – except its not the Internet (Part III – the Future of Networks)

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Kartik Chawla

This is the third post in this series; the first two, which set the background for the issue, are available here and here.

The question therefore becomes – is it time we look beyond the ‘internet’ as it exists, to newer models of communication? The ‘models’ I refer to here are not absolutely novel – nothing under the sun is. These models still rely on the TCP/IP protocol, still use parts of the ‘internet’, still use the network laid down for it – learn from it, and improve it. These models, in fact, bring to mind the original image that was created of the internet, so much so that we can actually call these models of communication the legacies of the ideas of the ‘original internet’, challenging the dominance of the ‘neo-internet’. So is it time we focus on these models, develop them, and mark the decline of the ‘neo-internet’?

Meet the New Internet, Same as the Old, Old Internet – except its not the Internet you know (Part II – The Tangled Wires)

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Kartik Chawla

This is the second in my three-part series on the issue. The first and third parts are available here and here.

Tangle One

Supreme Court on Non-Discrimination in Call Networks – An Argument for Indian Network Neutrality

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Kartik Chawla

(Image Source: http://flipthemedia.com/2014/01/net-neutrality-rules-are-dead-for-now-why-should-students-care/)

In an incredibly interesting judgement, the Supreme Court has on 30th January, in the case of Cellular Operators Association Of India & Ors. v. Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India & Ors., stated that providing different rates for calls to private Telecom Service Providers in comparison to those for calls to BSNL/MTNL violated of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. What is curious here is the implication that this case might have for Network Neutrality. The following is my argument in the same vein.

Net Neutrality Violations in India: On BluWiFi and OTT Services

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Kartik Chawla

I have written some posts about Net Neutrality before, here and here (the second is the 101). And recently, the now-aborted Airtel VoIP plans has kick-started serious discussions on the topic by TRAI, prompting the regulatory agency to issue a statement saying it will be releasing a consultation paper on the issue soon.

But it would seem that Airtel is not the only ISP that openly violates Net Neutrality in India. Interestingly, this Reddit thread brings to our attention the service terms of an Andhra Pradesh ISP BluWiFi’s Ultraband service. The relevant part here is their section on Peer-to-Peer connections, reproduced below:

Facebook, 'Internet.org' and the Ignored Questions of Civil Liberties

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Kartik Chawla

(Image Source: https://flic.kr/p/4W8mW)

Earlier yesterday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg met with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad (who curiously also holds the Ministry of Law and Justice portfolio). The Facebook CEO was in New Delhi on the 9^th and 10^th of October for the Internet.org summit.