A telecom department report on net neutrality has recommended against regulating any over the top services or apps, but called for “regulatory oversight” on those offering local voice calls similar to mobile operators. A six-member internal committee of the department of telecommunications ( DoT ) in its report also suggested a new law incorporating principles of net neutrality to replace the Indian Telegraph Act.“The committee favours regulatory oversight on the communication service providers,” reads the report. “The committee believes that for (other) OTT application services (including those offering messaging and international voice calls), there is no case for prescribing regulatory oversight similar to communication services,” it said.The DoT panel pointed out that apps such as Viber and WhatsApp that offer local calling services over the Internet don’t have to follow regulations like mobile phone operators do, thus creating a non-level playing field between two providers of similar services.The government will take a decision on the policy around net neutrality after public consultation and the telecom regulator’s recommendations on the subject.Net neutrality is a principle that guarantees consumers equal and non-discriminatory access to all Internet services with no discrimination on the basis of tariffs or speed.The DoT panel has also called for a new legislation that “when planned for replacing the existing legal framework must incorporate principles of net neutrality”. Till that time, interim provisions can be enforced through inserting a clause in licence conditions of telecom service providers (TSPs) and Internet service providers (ISPs) to include adherence to principles of net neutrality, it said.The suggestions fall in line with the government’s stand that the overall policy should guarantee net neutrality and free user access to all apps.ET had reported on June 30 that the DoT panel had recommended disallowing controversial zero rating plans of telcos and proposed a ban on throttling and any sort of prioritisation of Internet traffic.These aspects, the committee felt, were violating net neutrality. “Content and application providers cannot be permitted to act as gatekeepers and use network operations to extract value, even if it is for an ostensible public purpose. Collaborations between TSPs (telecom service providers) and content providers that enable such gate keeping role to be played by any entity should be actively discouraged,” the report said.Hitting the heart of the net neutrality debate, the report said a balance was required between ensuring Internet openness and reasonable use of traffic management by telcos and ISPs for legitimate needs.It has recommended allowing legitimate traffic management, but said ‘exploitative or anticompetitive traffic management’, ‘application specific control within the Internet traffic’ and traffic prioritisation on paid basis must not be allowed.Stressing on respecting user rights, the report said Internet service providers and telcos cannot restrict users’ ability to “receive, display, use, post any legal content, application or service on the Internet, or restrict any kind of lawful internet activity or use”.