Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industries bats for net neutrality

Kochi: Net neutrality is crucial for small business especially start-ups who bank on open internet to launch their businesses, Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industries said in its response to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s questionnaire on bringing differential access systems for Internet.

“For an IT savvy state like Kerala we need an open internet for job growth, competition and innovation”, CS Kartha President of the Chamber said on Monday.

The Chamber expresses its dissatisfaction against the recent proposal to create differential access to the internet, he said. “While CCCI appreciates the Government’s “Digital India” campaign and realises the importance of getting the internet up to the less privileged rural community we fail to understand the logic of discriminating websites for this social cause”, he added.

The proposal from few telecom operators to provide free data is welcome but it should not be at the cost of burdening others, Mr. Kartha said.

The Internet’s success in fostering innovation and 24x7 access to knowledge information were the key drivers for the record internet penetration in India, he added.

Taking all these factors into consideration Chamber urged the government and TRAI to strive for ‘non-discriminatory’ network and to refrain from any policy that will hamper the growth of internet in the Country.