India’s growing web of peering and the looming threat to net neutrality

Peering may seem like a blessing when it comes to watching seamless sport on Hotstar or your favourite show on Netflix, but what are we losing out on to gain buffer-free viewing?

Peering helps exchange data directly between service providers, as opposed to through the internet

With the help of peering, CDNs help companies to scale and serve their customers better

Cisco estimates that 71% of all Internet traffic will cross CDNs by 2021 globally

There are concerns that the concept can also be used to violate the spirit of net neutrality

In 2015, when Star India first broadcasted IPL matches, around 41 million people watched it on Hotstar. By the next season, the number had gone up to 77 million viewers. As of 19 January 2017, over 25 million watched just the second one-day international (ODI) match between India and England on the over-the-top (OTT) or on-demand video service platform.

Now, that big a number of people watching a match on their respective TVs, like the olden days, is one thing. On the internet, each user adds traffic to the network, therefore disturbing the seamlessness of the game, as it should be enjoyed.

AUTHOR

Sidhartha Shukla

In his earlier stint at Moneycontrol, the website owned by the Network18 group, Sid wrote on cryptocurrencies, cybersecurity, business, and finance. Born in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, Sid has spent most of his life in Jalandhar, Punjab. He has a BSc in Mathematics from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai. Sid is a comic book nerd and a big fan of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Brian Azzarello. He can be reached at sidhartha at the rate the-ken.com

View Full Profile

Others tell you what. We tell you the ‘So What?’

Read articles that decode the most significant shifts happening around business, technology, startups and healthcare. 1000+ articles for subscribers of the India edition. 150+ articles for subscribers of the Southeast Asia edition. Plus premium newsletters that help you make sense of the world around you.

So much journalism in India is superficial.

Articles are generic, almost cookie-cutter in their approach. And they don’t provide enough context on the issues they cover. The Ken is different. I don’t always agree with everything they say but I appreciate their commitment to publishing deeply reported narratives and investigations. Their reporters find new ways to analyze tech among other industries. And that’s always worth a read.

Sid Talwar / Co-Founder and Partner / Lightbox Venture Capital

As entrepreneurs, we thrive on being in the know at all times.

A personal subscription to The Ken was a no brainer. But as startup founders, this isn't enough. Team members also need to be in the know, for everyone handles customer-facing responsibilities and an ecosystem change that impacts customers also impacts us

Kiran Jonnalagadda / Co-founder / HasGeek and Internet Freedom Foundation