OK Google, meet Net Neutrality

India has Net Neutrality for internet access providers. Does it also need Net Neutrality to counter Google’s Android market share?

Android, in combination with Play Store, has become a formidable gatekeeper to mobile internet

Android’s omniscience makes it as much a utility as a telco’s pipes that carry internet

Since the rules of Net Neutrality apply to the pipes, it is only logical that it extends to Android—the gatekeeper of mobile internet

Net Neutrality forbids blocking, degrading and favouring. Incidentally, three things Google does

Exactly three years ago, in February 2016, India decisively dodged a bullet. Fighting back against an aggressive campaign of misinformation, lobbying and advertising from global internet giants like Facebook, India became one of the first major countries to adopt unambiguous rules to ensure Net Neutrality.

The rules brought in by the telecom regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), mandated that internet access providers (from wired broadband to mobile networks) couldn’t discriminate between different applications or services accessed over the internet by their customers.

AUTHOR

Arundhati Ramanathan

Arundhati is Bengaluru-based. She is interested in how people use money in the digital age and how new economies will take shape based on that interaction. She has spent over 10 years reporting and writing on various subjects. Previous stints were at Mint, Outlook Business and Reuters.

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