New Delhi:

"What is net neutrality?" This is the first question strikes our mind every time we see the hash tag #IndiaWantsNetNeutrality trending on social sites.

If we go literal, neutrality refers to something ‘unbiased’. Internet has always been a medium which has provided its players a common platform to reach out to the users.

Net neutrality basically refers to two aspects:

First, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) do not have a say in the content or the web portals accessed by the users.

Second, they don’t partisan between the web portals regardless of their net worth, user engagement etc.

For example, any new start up say XYZ.com is treated with the same privilidges a hefty web portal like Facebook, i.e any user can access it regardless the wish of the ISP. This unpartisan system of digital space is known as net neutrality.

The service provider, for example: Vodafone, Airtel, MTS, Idea etc. doesn’t partisan between a big company (website/app) and a start-up.

Same has been the reason behind rise of internet giants like Facebook, Google, Twitter which were once started at very small levels.

Net neutrality has been the basic principle behind the rapid and vast growth of internet medium.

What will happen if there is no net neutrality?

If net neutrality ends in India, ISPs will attain the power to shape the internet traffic (users) to gain extra and undue profits. For example, several ISPs have a view that they should be allowed to charge a certain amount of money websites/app like YouTube as they consume more bandwidth (Internet Data) than other websites. If neutrality ends, the service provider will be allowed to charge an undue share in the money which YouTube make.

Same happened in the case of Airtel Zero, where the ISP launched company an open market platform for customers to access a variety of mobile applications for free, with the data charges being paid by the companies owning the space in the application.

Flipkart being one of the top players in e-commerce had money to own a space in Airtel Zero which lead to a disadvantage for many start ups. This is the breach of net neutrality in this case.

Apprehensions are high that if the practice persists for long, internet medium will become marionette of a few big players.

Also, it will end the innovation on internet like today. New start ups will find it very difficult to run their web portals or apps as it will then require huge investments for the same.