Trai to issue net neutrality recommendations on Tuesday

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Monday said it will issue recommendations on net neutrality on Tuesday.

"We will issue recommendations on net neutrality tomorrow (Tuesday)," Trai chairman R S Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of an open house discussion on in-flight connectivity (IFC) for providing phone call and data service.  

He also said recommendations on net neutrality should be able to provide some of the answers to issues around OTT (over-the-top) players and VoIP (Voice over Internet protocol) calls.

Sharma also said recommendations on IFC will be issued within 10 days.

Net neutrality principle says that access to internet or any internet-based service should be without any barrier or discrimination.  

Telecom operators have been asking the government to bring over-the-top (OTT) players like Skype, WhatsApp, Viber under regulation as they are making a dent in their revenues, while internet-based service providers oppose this.

However, supporters of net neutrality have been demanding that the entire internet traffic should be available to everyone on equal terms without any discrimination.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad last week while addressing the 'Global Cyber Security' event at the national capital said the government is supporting the free flow of internet without any barrier.

The telecom regulators recommendations will come at a time when there is a debate raging over net neutrality globally. US regulator, Federal Communications Commission, recently announced that it is planning to roll back the "net neutrality" rules that were adopted in America in 2015.