IAMAI opposes zero-rate plans under Google's pressure in submission to DoT

Coming out strongly against zero-rate plans of any type, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said such plans would harm online content and also allow telcos to discriminate against certain web services.

In its submissions to the Department of Telecom (DoT) last week, IAMAI said it clearly and unambiguously opposed zero-rated plans of any kind.

Last week Google is reported to have pushed the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), a body that represents internet companies in India, for the removal of any mention of zero rating in its submission to the Department of Telecom's report on Net Neutraliy (See: Internet search giant Google pushing IAMAI to drop zero rating from submission to DoT).

Thursday was the last date for submission of comments on the report by the  Department of Telecommuniations (DoT).

The government had called for public comments following a controversy on zero-rated plans that were seen to be discriminatory.

The government would firm up regulations after considering public opinion as also regulator TRAI's suggestions.

''These plans will ultimately harm internet content and service providers by limiting competition among them, and, by extension, limit consumer choice,'' IAMAI said.

Such plans will also ''allow the operators, if given control of which apps or services to push to consumers, to discriminate and privilege certain web services over others, and throttle innovation''.

The association also opposed the licence proposal for domestic and national VoIP (voice over internet), as proposed by the DoT paper.

According to IAMAI such a regime would be directly against consumer interest and against future innovations. IAMAI further said it did not support any plans that violated principles of net neutrality "especially paid or unpaid prioritisation or other discriminatory practices".

The report, submitted by a panel headed by technocrat AK Bhargava, was made public on 16 July, and said it favoured, among a host of other matters, an end to the free-call regime over the internet, which raised the hackles of netizens.

Net neutrality, calls upon government, internet service providers and other stakeholders to equal treat all voice and data services on the internet equally, and desist from levying differential tariffs for usage, content, platform, sites, application or mode of communication.

Responding to the protests over the panel recommendations, Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told parliament that these were only suggestions and not the final view.

"It is neither the final report, nor has the government taken any final view," he said.