DELHI, India -- Marking Facebook’s Internet.org as a platform to ‘extract value’, apparently for larger public purpose (as the social media giant claims), a high-powered government committee has said that prioritization in the delivery of mobile content based on a model where content providers pay for consumption and visibility goes against the governing principles of net neutrality.
Paid prioritization relates to a working model where telecom operators assign greater visibility and unrestricted browsing to websites and portals which pay for it. This could lead to disruption of what has been a level playing field so far as smaller online businesses and startups would be at an obvious disadvantage against bigger players who can buy visibility.
The committee set up by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) also found substance in the thought that Internet telephony providers like Skype, WhatsApp, and Viber should be brought under the purview of the government with a licensing regime similar to what is applicable to telecom operators like Airtel and Vodafone.
While Internet.org is offered worldwide across different telecom providers, Reliance Communications has partnered Facebook to make the service available in India. Clearing the air on Internet.org and its application as a custodian of neutrality, RCom came out in support of the platform, claiming that nearly 80-million non-data users out of its 115-million mobile user base have actively participated and engaged on the free platform.
A statement issued by a RCom official substantiates Internet.org for equipping non-data customers with Internet access. “A large number of mobile subscribers in India do not have access to data services. By offering them various educational and awareness sites via the Internet.org platform, we are arming a large subscriber base with access to internet and in a way helping the government meet its goal for digital inclusion,” it said.
Additionally, all the 38 websites being offered through Internet.org conform to special standards of size and compression, furthering the premise of net neutrality and helping non-data users access the Internet.
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