The logic of ‘all bits are equal’

The champions of net neutrality invoke principles of equal opportunity, non-discrimination and freedom for everybody to enjoy the benefits of the Internet. But just think of the discriminations which we are willingly suffering; all of them imposed by governments which are musically repeating that they are for the poor and the common man.

A balance has to be struck between the emergence of new forms of storage and dissemination of information/knowledge and the costs of the infrastructure that is required for it Breathes there a man with soul so sublime that he is unwilling to get everything free?

Those who are championing the net neutrality (NN) are faulting the few telcos which provide Internet service for planning to give preferential treatment for access to certain websites, especially those offering e-commerce.

The champions of NN invoke principles of equal opportunity, non-discrimination and freedom for everybody to enjoy the benefits of the Internet. But just think of the discriminations which we are willingly suffering; all of them imposed by governments which are musically repeating that they are for the poor and the common man. Like telecoms and the Internet, Railways are also a utility.

Between two distant stations and on the same train, for the same duration of travel there are different fares for different grades of comfort - unreserved general, three -tier sleeper, two-tier A/C and A/C 1st class. In addition, a good proportion of the reserved seats in each class is set apart for Tatkal and Premium Tatkal categories, both at several times the normal price for the same class of travel.

If this is not discrimination and an exploitation, what else is?

The Railways have the track and signalling system. On the same tracks and subject to the same signalling system for the movement of passengers, there are Super Fast Expresses, Expresses and Passenger trains. The fares between any two stations on these 3 types of trains are different, although all of them use the same track and its signalling system.

On the same track run goods trains. The management of traffic for these two types of trains is different. The passenger trains are always given priority over the goods trains; passenger traffic is loss; goods traffic is overpriced to cover deficits on passenger service. The same surface roads are used by bicycles, scooters /motor cycles, auto rickshaws, private passengers cars goods carriers and trucks.

The road tax for each class of these vehicles is different as they have different influence on the flow of traffic. Lorries are not allowed into cities during certain daylight hours; vehicles pay toll charges on national highways at different rates for goods trucks, busses, passenger cars, autos & two-wheelers.

In the professional colleges (for example : engineering & medicine ) the fee charged for the government quota are different from the management quota although the education delivered and the degree awarded is the same. The Post Office has ordinary post and speed post. It charges differently for these two classes of delivery. On the Internet itself, all information (voice, images, text and data) is packetized and each packet carries a label at the head to indicate that it is video, voice or text or data.

Routers (switches) read the header and give priority to video packets to go through, followed by voice, then text and then data last. This is the principle behind MPLS as applicable to routers. Telcos are seeing the decline of SMS revenues because the SMSes are substituted by over the top (OTT) services and social messaging like whatsapp. VOIP ( voice over internet protocol) is eroding the voice revenues of telcos.

More and more intelligent and capable mobile hand -held devices - smart phones are coming to access websites and have software facilitating the use of social media. The change is so rapid that ideas relevant to the old systems (the post office and monopoly fixed telephony are irrelevant). Now the preferences offered by the likes of Airtel and Vodafone to access the websites of those commercial companies who pay heavily to them would give access faster and the downloads from them would be faster than from others.

How is this differential treatment for those who pay more (websites like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal) different from the airlines and railways owned by the government charging different prices for the same travel service that they are offering ?

It is worthwhile to remember that the telcos paid huge amounts to get the spectrum which was auctioned. The government has so far collected about Rs 3,50,000 crore from the telcos for the spectrum. Although the spectrum was purchased, the telcos have to pay for using the spectrum (spectrum usage charges).

It is like a person buying a flat and paying upfront but having to pay monthly rent for using that flat for living . In the US, 50 MHz is given for life whereas in India it is 15 MHz, buyable every 20 years and additionally charged for use every year. This iniquity is not known to the NN champions. Unfortunately, populist politicians are making people to think that many services should be given away either freely (electricity, Indiramma houses, KG-to-PG education including engineering & medicine etc) or at fabulously low prices.

This is illogical, immoral and unsustainable. A balance has to be struck between the emergence of new forms of storage and dissemination of information/knowledge and the costs of the infrastructure that is required for it. (The writer is Director of the Center for Telecom Management & Studies, Chairman of Pragna Bharati, Andhra Pradesh. and a Fellow of Tata Consultancy Services. He was also the IT Advisor, Andhra Pradesh)

DR T H CHOWDARY