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TRAI Consultation on Differential Pricing for Data Services - Post-Open House Discussion Submission
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/trai-consultation-on-differential-pricing-for-data-services
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society sent this submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) following the Open House Discussion on Differential Pricing of Data Services, held in Delhi on February 21, 2016.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Download the submission document: <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/website/raw/master/docs/CIS_TRAI-Differential-Pricing_Submission_2015.01.25.pdf">PDF</a>.</h4>
<p> </p>
<h3>Post-Open House Discussion Submission to TRAI</h3>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Dear Ms. Kotwal,</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is to heartily congratulate TRAI once again for taking several steps, including the Open House Discussion, to ensure that various opinions about the topic of ‘differential pricing for data services’ are presented and are responded to - and are all in full public view.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This brief note is to <strong>a)</strong> add to the positions and arguments submitted previously by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India, <strong>b)</strong> put in writing our comments during the Open House Discussion (January 21, 2016), and <strong>c)</strong> respond to other comments shared at the same event. We have six points to share in this note:<br /><br /></p>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li><strong>Forbearance is not an option</strong>: We are of the opinion that though the data services market has thus far been kept un-monitored and unregulated, and there are several reasons why this situation should not continue any more. Although the reality of differential pricing (that is data packets originating from different sources being priced differently by ISPs) was highlighted with the recent offering of zero rated packs, it is a general practice in the sector, as illustrated by widely available special/curated content packs for the user to consume data from a specified web-based source. It is not surprising that most such special/curated content packs involve an arrangement between the ISP and a prominent leader in the web-content/platform sector, such as Facebook and Twitter. Serious market distorting impacts of such arrangements are imminent if they are allowed to continue without any monitoring, enforced public disclosure, and regulatory actions by a public authority.<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Address differential treatment of data, and not only differential pricing</strong>: Pricing is only of the three ways in which data services can be treated differently by the ISPs depending upon the source of the data packets concerned. The other two ways are: a) differential speed, or throttling of some data packets and prioritisation of the others, and b) differential treatment of data protocols, for example, the blocking of peer-to-peer or voice-over-IP traffic by an ISP. If the public authority decides to only regulate differential pricing of data service, it is highly probable that ISPs may shift to other forms of discrimination between data packets - either in terms of prioritising some data packets over others based upon their origin, or blocking of specific protocols such as voice-over-IP to prevent the functioning of certain web-based services - and continue the market distorting impacts through these other means.<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Allow and define reasonable network management practices</strong>: Reasonable network management has to be allowed to enable the ISPs to manage performance on their network. However, ISPs may not indulge in acts that are harmful to users in the name of reasonable network management. Below is a set of potential guidelines to identify cases when discrimination against classes of data traffic in the name of reasonable network management can be considered justified and permissible:<br />
<ul><li>there is an intelligible differentia between the classes which are to be treated differently,</li>
<li>there is a rational nexus between the differential treatment and the aim of such differentiation,</li>
<li>the aim sought to be furthered is legitimate, and is related to the security, stability, or efficient functioning of the network, or is a technical limitation outside the control of the ISP, and</li>
<li>the network management practice is the least harmful technical means that is reasonably available to achieve the aim.</li><br /></ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Establish an effective enforcement mechanism</strong>: TRAI must establish an enforcement mechanism that is open to users [and groups of users] and private sector actors as current forums are insufficient. Clear and simple rules must be established ex-ante, if they are violated - ex-post regulation must be undertaken on the basis of principles listed in the TRAI consultation paper, that is “non-discrimination, transparency, affordable internet access, competition and market entry, and innovation” <a name="fr1">[1]</a><br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Take regulatory decisions now, but also conduct and commission further research to review and refine the decisions over a defined period of time</strong><br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Need for better collection and proactive disclosure of statistics</strong>: TRAI publishes quarterly performance indicators statistics collected from the telecom companies about telephone, mobile, and internet sectors in India <a name="fr2">[2]</a>. It will be very useful for researchers and analysts, and allow for a much more informed public debate on the matter, if the content and form of such data are improved in the following ways:<br />
<br /><strong>Content:</strong>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Please start collection (unless already done) and publication of not only data of average incoming and outgoing MOUs, average of total outgoing SMSs, Average Revenue Per User, and average data usage per GSM and CDMA subscriber, but distributions of the same in terms of user deciles (that is in terms of representative figures for each 10% section of users in ascending order of usage),</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Provide granular data about data usage across service areas and service providers (the numbers on ‘average data usage’ and total ‘revenue from data usage’ provided at present are very insufficient for the state of public debate),</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Provide data about internet subscriber base according to network technologies (for both wired and wireless) and the service providers concerned,</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Provide data about IP-based telephony across service areas and service providers,</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Provide data separately for the North Eastern states, and</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Provide granular data (separated from the corresponding state data) for all tier-1 cities.</div>
</li></ul>
<br />
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Form:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Please do not publish the data only as part of the quarterly reports available in PDF format, but also as independent machine-readable spreadsheet file (preferably in CSV format),</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Do not only publish quarterly data in separate files, but also provide a combined (all quarters together) dataset that would make it much easier for researchers and analysts to use the data,</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">In some exceptional cases, the data is not provided in the report directly but a diagram containing the data is published <a name="fr3">[3]</a>, which should be kindly avoided, and</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Please publish these statistics as open data, that is in open standards and under open licenses.<br /><br /></div>
</li></ul>
</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Further, we request TRAI to explore possibilities of distributed sourcing of data, perhaps from the users themselves, about the actual network usage experiences, including but not limited to signal strength, data transfer speed (incoming and outgoing), frequency of switches between mobile (GSM and CDMA) and wi-fi connectivity, etc.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>References</h3>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn1">1</a>]. http://trai.gov.in/WriteReaddata/ConsultationPaper/Document/CP-Differential-Pricing-09122015.pdf.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn2">2</a>]. http://www.trai.gov.in/Content/PerformanceIndicatorsReports/1_1_PerformanceIndicatorsReports.aspx.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn3">3</a>]. http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/PIRReport/Documents/Performance_Indicator_Report_Jun_2015.pdf , sections 1.43 and 1.44 (pp. 31-32).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/trai-consultation-on-differential-pricing-for-data-services'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/trai-consultation-on-differential-pricing-for-data-services</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroInternet AccessTRAINet NeutralityTelecomTRAI, OTTInternet Governance2016-03-30T13:13:30ZBlog EntryConnectivity: Let's Apply What We Know
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/connectivity-lets-apply-what-we-know
<b>Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it - George Santayana. Reprise good decisions, and avoid the missteps.</b>
<p>The Op-ed was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/shyam-ponappa-connectivity-let-s-apply-what-we-know-116030201032_1.html">Business Standard</a> on March 2 and cross-posted on <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2016/03/connectivity-lets-apply-what-we-know.html">Organizing India BlogSpot</a> on March 3.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Past decisions deserve scrutiny when we can learn from them. The Budget expects about Rs 75,000 crore from spectrum auctions. What will be gained and lost? A study by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2005 has some pointers for policies going forward. These relate to decisions that enabled the proliferation of mobile telephony between 2003 and 2011. Other decisions had less salutary outcomes, which we would do well to recognise and avoid. Reviewing some of these could influence supportive policies, resulting in industry growth with enhanced user benefits and government revenues.<br /><br /> <strong>1. Reasonable fees increase govt revenues</strong><br /><br /> The TRAI report cited below states that as a consequence of the New Telecom Policy 1999's (NTP-99's) shift to revenue sharing for licence fees and spectrum usage charges, government revenues soared. Collections through March 2007 greatly exceeded the auction payment commitments of Rs 19,314 that were given up.<br /><br /> The NTP-99 stirred controversy because of this opportunity loss, as a suspected sellout to the private sector. However, government collections actually turned out to be much higher through revenue sharing. Operators did indeed benefit, but for a good reason: explosive growth in mobile services. Users also benefited immensely through the rapid spread of widely accessible services at relatively low cost, as did government revenues.<br /><br /> In the chart below, the second column shows the auction fees foregone through March 2007 after adopting the NTP-99, amounting to Rs 19,314 crore. The third column shows annual government revenues collected, while the fourth column shows cumulative government collections. Compared to the opportunity cost of auction revenues foregone of Rs 19,314 crore, government collections by March 2007 amounted to over Rs 40,000 crore, more than double the "loss". With revenue sharing, collections did not stop in March 2007, and by March 2010 were nearly Rs 80,000 crore, or four times the "loss". By March 2015, the "loss" had been made up by more than eight times, by collecting over Rs 1.6 lakh crore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Spectrum.jpg" alt="Spectrum" class="image-inline" title="Spectrum" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Sources<br />Column 1 - 1999-00 to 2006-07:Indicators for Telecom Growth, Study Paper No. 2/2005,TRAI:<a href="http://trai.gov.in/Content/StudyPaperDescription/ShowPDF.aspx?LNK_PATH=WriteReaddata/StudyPaper/Document/ir30june.pdf">http://trai.gov.in/Content/StudyPaperDescription/ShowPDF.aspx?LNK_PATH=WriteReaddata/StudyPaper/Document/ir30june.pdf</a>Columns 2 & 3 – 2002-03 to 2009-10:Peformance Audit Report on the Issue of Licences and Allocation of 2G Spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications, CAG:<a href="http://www.performance.gov.in/sites/default/files/departments/telecom/CAG%20Report%202009-10.pdf">http://www.performance.gov.in/sites/default/files/departments/telecom/CAG Report 2009-10.pdf</a>Columns 2 & 3 – 2010-11 to 2014-15 are from the TRAI web site:<a href="http://www.trai.gov.in/Content/PerformanceIndicatorsReports/1_1_PerformanceIndicatorsReports.aspx">http://www.trai.gov.in/Content/PerformanceIndicatorsReports/1_1_PerformanceIndicatorsReports.aspx</a><br /><br /> In hindsight, a combination of policies, market structure/competition, and technology resulted in enormous growth, much higher government collections, and tremendous user benefits. A key impetus was the adoption of the high-volume-low-margin approach of Henry Ford's "Model-T" strategy. This principle is an essential ingredient for achieving Digital India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><strong>2. Unenforced regulations lead to chaos</strong></span><br /><span><strong><br /></strong></span> <span>In our conditions of deficit infrastructure with constrained capital, the need for collaborative access to capital-intensive resources cannot be sufficiently emphasised. It's either that or do without the connectivity, as we've had to so far.</span></p>
<div style="float: left; "></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Until around 1999-2000, only GSM technology was permitted in India for mobile telephony (Global System for Mobile Communications, originally Groupe Special Mobile). Thereafter, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology was introduced for wireless last-mile connections. While CDMA was supposedly restricted to the so-called Wireless-Local-Loop or WLL in place of fixed-lines for basic telephony, ambivalence/laxity in the enforcement of stated policies and the extension of this technology to mobile services led to unending contention and protracted legal battles between GSM and CDMA operators. While users benefited from price wars resulting from overly intense competition, both industry and users suffered considerable opportunity losses, as broadband development was constrained by a hypercompetitive environment roiled by unrelenting conflict. The marketplace was simply not conducive to the extension and evolution of broadband networks, particularly for less dense rural markets, so connectivity and services suffered.</span><br /><span><br /></span> <span>Although several operators negotiated a degree of resource-sharing among themselves that was permitted, the industry couldn't converge on collaborative approaches to highly capital-intensive network building and service delivery, nor did the government devise supportive policies. Those in favour of unbridled market forces may approve of such intense competition. However, the cost of creating capacity and expanding networks is so prohibitive that, as a study on EU networks suggests, "as market conditions appear to be insufficient in most countries so far to trigger broad-scale NGA [Next Generation Access (Networks)] roll-outs in view of high investment requirements… and risks, identifying the right policy measures becomes crucial." It concludes, "public subsidies are the dominant policy alternative in white [unprofitable] areas, whereas access regulations can be the preferred policy in white or "grey" areas, where only monopoly structure or co-investment models lead to private investment."</span><span>1</span><span> And this is for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.</span><br /><span><br /></span> <span>The takeaway: good policies are essential, but are meaningful only if they are enforced. Otherwise, we all suffer the opportunity loss.</span><br /><span><br /></span> <strong><span>3. Global developments in sharing infrastructure</span></strong><br /><span><br /></span> <span>A major change globally has been a move towards sharing infrastructure. One motivator is broadband usage needs for greater capacity including for wireless delivery. The US pioneered a solution for better spectrum utilisation by permitting secondary sharing while primary holders retain rights of priority access. The FCC permitted commercial access to 150 megahertz in the 3550-3700 MHz band (3.5 GHz Band) in its ruling of April 17, 2015.<sup><span>2</span></sup> Work is under way in Europe on Licenced Shared Access, eg, in 2300-2400 MHz.</span><br /><span><br /></span> <span>Another motivator for sharing infrastructure has been the financial challenge of providing rural and suburban coverage. Shared networks enable more effective and efficient coverage through multiple operators in such markets. Operators save on capital and operating expenses, while gaining access and higher profit potential. For users, better services improve financial prospects, convenience, and access to services that are otherwise inaccessible, including in areas like health care, education and skills development, and government services. Network sharing equipment is now available to support multiple operators and technologies to make sharing a reality.</span><br /><span><br /></span> <span>We need to stop obstructing ourselves with our own rules. Our regulations must instead enable us to make the most of our capital and potential.</span></p>
<hr />
<p><i>1 "The Impact of Alternative Public Policies on the Deployment of New Communications Infrastructure - A Survey", Briglauer et al: </i><a href="http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp15003.pdf" target="_blank"><i>http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp15003.pdf</i></a><br /><i><br /></i><em>2 </em><span><span><i>Amendment of the Commission’s Rules with </i></span></span><i>Regard to Commercial Operations in the 3550-</i><br /><span><span><i>3650 MHz Band: </i></span></span><em><a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-47A1.pdf" target="_blank">https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-47A1.pdf</a></em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/connectivity-lets-apply-what-we-know'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/connectivity-lets-apply-what-we-know</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2016-04-06T01:19:28ZBlog EntryIndia's ‘Facebook ruling’ is another nail in the coffin of the MNO model
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/the-register-february-15-2016-india-facebook-ruling-is-another-nail-in-coffin-of-mno-model
<b>Ability to access 'net from mobe no longer considered a miracle.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/15/indias_facebook_ruling_is_another_nail_in_the_coffin_of_the_mno_model/">Register</a> on February 15, 2016. Pranesh Prakash gave inputs.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Nobody could accuse India’s telecoms regulator, TRAI, of being in the operators’ pockets. This month it has, once again, set eye-watering reserve prices for the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction (see separate item), and now it has taken one of the toughest stances in the world on net neutrality, in effect banning zero rated or discounted content deals like Reliance Communications’ Facebook Basics, or Bharti Airtel’s Zero.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In a ruling last Monday, TRAI said telecoms providers are banned from offering discriminatory tariffs for data services based on content, and from entering deals to subsidize access to certain websites. They have six months to wind down any existing arrangements which contravene the new rules. Its stance is even stricter than in other countries with strong pro-neutrality laws, such as Brazil and The Netherlands.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“This is the most extensive and stringent regulation on differential pricing anywhere in the world,” Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society, said. “Those who suggested regulation in place of complete ban have clearly lost.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Such decisions, combined with high spectrum costs, will quickly make the traditional cellular business model unworkable in India, and the more that happens, the more wireless internet innovation will switch to open networks running on Wi-Fi and unlicensed spectrum. R.S. Sharma, chairman of TRAI, was careful to tell reporters that the zero rating ruling would not affect any plans to offer free Wi-Fi services, like those planned by Google in a venture with Indian Railways.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">A disaster for MNOs, not Facebook</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook pronounced itself “disappointed” at TRAI’s ruling, having lobbied aggressively for a more flexible approach since RCOM was forced to suspend the Basics offering in December while the consultation process took place. But while the ruling bars the Basics offering – which provided free, low speed access, on RCOM’s network, to a selection of websites, curated by Facebook – it does not stop the social media giant pursuing other initiatives within its internet.org umbrella. These include projects to extend access using its own networks, powered by drones and unlicensed spectrum, to the unserved of India and other emerging economies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">So while the TRAI decision may be a setback for Facebook, it is not the body blow that it represents for the MNOs with their huge debt loads and infrastructure costs, and low ARPUs. Facebook, with 130m users in India, has a comparable reach to the Indian MNOs (only three, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, have more subscribers than Facebook has users), and is better skilled at monetizing those consumers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The challenge for companies like Facebook is that strict neutrality rules reduce their ability to harness others’ networks in order to reach out to new users. There are about 240m people in India who are online, but don’t use Facebook, and about 800m who are not connected, so the growth potential is far larger than in the other 37 countries where Basics is offered, such as Kenya or Zambia (Facebook is blocked in China). Using RCOM’s network and marketing activities was a far cheaper way to reach some of those people than launching drones, but Facebook has other options too, including its existing efforts to make its services more usable on very basic handsets and connections; the ability to leverage the WhatsApp brand; and partnerships with Wi-Fi providers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The drones may have less immediate results than Basics, but they are a high profile example of an ongoing shift towards open networks, which has been going on for years, driven more by Wi-Fi proliferation than neutrality laws. The latter will be an accelerant, however.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">All internet will be free, not zero rated</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Currently, zero rating is an increasingly popular tactic to lure users with an apparently cheap deal and then, hopefully, see them upgrade to richer data plans, or spend money on m-commerce and premium content, in future. Zero rating involves allowing users access to selected websites and services without it affecting their data caps or allowances.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The US regulator has so far tolerated the practice, but the debate is raging, there and elsewhere, over whether it infringes neutrality laws, by offering different pricing for different internet services. If other authorities take the stance adopted by TRAI in India, operators will have to find new ways to attract customers and differentiate themselves.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Increasingly, access to a truly open internet will be the baseline, and priced extremely low. That low pricing will be made commercially viable by rising use of Wi-Fi to reduce cost of data delivery, whether for MNOs, wireline providers or web players like Google and Facebook, which are moving into access provision. Providers, whether traditional or new, will have to stop regarding access to the internet as a premium service or a privilege – it will be more akin to connecting someone to the electricity grid, just the base enabler of the real revenue model.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Just as it’s only when users plug something into that grid that they start to pay fees, so the operators will charge for higher value offerings which ride on top of the internet – premium content, enterprise services, cloud storage, freemium applications and so on.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The mobile operators have not embraced these ideas willingly. For years, the ability to access the internet from a mobile device was regarded as a value-add, almost a miracle. Now that the wireless network is often the primary access method, they need to change their ideas and be more like the smarter cablecos – which have tacked internet access onto a model driven by paid-for content and services – or the web giants, which have worked out ways to monetize ‘free’ access, from advertising to big data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This, of course, is one of the goals of internet.org and Google’s similar initiatives involving drones, white space spectrum and satellites. The more users are able to access the internet, preferably for free, and the more they see Google or Facebook as their primary conduits to the web, the more data these companies have to feed into their deep learning platforms, their context aware services and their advertising and big data engines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">So while critics of TRAI said the zero rating decision was a setback to the goal of getting internet access into the hands of the huge underserved population of India, that population is too large and potentially rich for Facebook and its rivals to give up at the first hurdle.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post: "While we're disappointed with today's decision, I want to personally communicate that we are committed to keep working to break down barriers to connectivity in India and around the world. Internet.org has many initiatives, and we will keep working until everyone has access to the internet."</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/the-register-february-15-2016-india-facebook-ruling-is-another-nail-in-coffin-of-mno-model'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/the-register-february-15-2016-india-facebook-ruling-is-another-nail-in-coffin-of-mno-model</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaSocial MediaTelecomFree BasicsTRAIInternet GovernanceFreedom of Speech and Expression2016-02-28T03:44:34ZNews ItemBottled-Up National Assets
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/shyam-ponappa-business-standard-february-3-2016-bottled-up-national-assets
<b>Apply electronic toll collection systems to roads, and adapt road network concepts in organizing and managing communications networks.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/shyam-ponappa-bottled-up-national-assets-116020301314_1.html">Business Standard </a>on February 3, 2016 and also mirrored on <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2016/02/bottled-up-national-assets.html">Organizing India BlogSpot </a>on February 4, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The productivity bottled up in assets in this country is mind boggling. The catch is that to be unleashed, the systems in which these assets are embedded must function effectively.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Take the road network. A study of Delhi-Mumbai truck traffic by Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) and Transport Corporation of India in 2012 reported an average speed of just over 21 km per hour. Of 18 stops, 16 were to pay tolls manually with average delays of 10 minutes, constituting 80 per cent of total stoppage time. The study estimated that delays cost the economy Rs 27,000 crore ($5.5 billion at the time), with the additional fuel consumption estimated at Rs 60,000 crore ($12 billion at the time).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Indian Highways Management Company Limited, set up in 2012, was tasked with implementing electronic toll collection (ETC) systems. It began with ICICI Bank, then added Axis Bank. ETC was introduced on the Delhi-Mumbai expressway in 2014. A dedicated ETC lane across the country was to have been completed by 2014, then 2015; perhaps it will be ready in some months. But, for full efficiency gains, the entire traffic flow needs ETC, not just a small segment. Also, anomalies such as the unwillingness of sections of the populace to pay tolls, or for political parties to exploit these tendencies, will need to be "sorted out". In effect, similar criteria will operate as in electricity distribution networks: Users must either pay for services - directly or with the help of subsidies, or forego infrastructure services of reasonable quality. If there is no enforcement of rules (quality service-supply and payment-collection), there will be a shoddy mess.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The underlying expressways already exist, but installing these systems require effort and investment. Imagine the productivity gains and reduced pollution if vehicles going through over 370 toll plazas in India don't have to stop, wait for 10 minutes on average to pay tolls, then accelerate back to cruising speed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Inter-City Road Network Organisation</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">An important feature of the way road networks are organised and managed is the concept of common-pool resources, i.e., all public roads that do not require special tolls are part of a common pool, and are accessible to anyone who pays road taxes for the vehicle used. Another strength is that controlled-access roads with tolls connect to the rest of the road network. (There are negative aspects such as state registration, whereby states collect high fees for re-registering a vehicle on a change of domicile, but our focus here is on strengths).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Extending Similar Concepts to Communications</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Now consider the infrastructure network of the communications system. Why don't we apply these beneficial aspects of operating our roads, namely, common-pool resources with access charges, to communications? There are several reasons, since transportation and communications have evolved in different ways. While they are customarily treated differently, these legacy issues can be resolved.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In communications, spectrum bands were separated into one lot for broadcasting and another for telecommunications, which began with voice and now extends to data. Concerns about anticompetitive dominance in the US led to spectrum auctions in the 1990s, initially to prevent concentration of power in the hands of press barons-cum-broadcasters. The emphasis changed, however, to embellishing government treasuries, barring exceptions as in the public-spirited Nordic countries, Japan,1 and China. In India, events following the 2G scam and a war-of-attrition death spiral in politics have resulted in a paroxysm of righteous inability to take a long-term view, which is a prerequisite for making constructive policy choices. But, as the economy stalls and dark days loom, perhaps the political and administrative leaders will muster the courage to understand our predicament and find a way to get off the beaten track leading to a morass.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We have economic uncertainty, a burgeoning working-age population that could either contribute to supply-and-demand or to disorder, high interest rates, and a heavily over-leveraged communications sector. The indebtedness is aggravated by previous spectrum auctions and constrained reach. Inadequate connectivity limits not only opportunity, but service provision and revenue potential.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The sector's urgent need is for more spectrum at less cost. More countries are pooling communications infrastructure including spectrum. Australia, Denmark, Spain, the UK, Sweden, and latterly, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have different levels of shared infrastructure including spectrum (see chart below).2 Mexico is deploying a countrywide wholesale network using 700 MHz (megahertz). In India, restrictive regulations hinder effective spectrum sharing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/c1.jpg/@@images/951e15b4-a9cd-4e31-bdbc-565c5ad1d546.jpeg" alt="c1" class="image-inline" title="c1" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“In Latin America passive sharing has been the preferred approach, with Tower Cos. playing a key role…”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/c2.jpg/@@images/0c186bb2-d206-4cca-82da-f08488fd8a59.jpeg" alt="c2" class="image-inline" title="c2" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left; "><span>Source: </span><span>Daniel Leza-TMGTelecom-12 March 2014: </span><a href="https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Regulatory-Market/Documents/CostaRica/Presentations/Session8_Daniel%20Leza%20-%20Mobile%20Infrastructure%20Sharing%20-%2012%20March%202014.pdf"><span>https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Regulatory-Market/Documents/CostaRica/Presentations/Session8_Daniel%20Leza%20-%20Mobile%20Infrastructure%20Sharing%20-%2012%20March%202014.pdf</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Studies by Columbia University and the Indian Institute of Science affirm that pooling infrastructure can maximise total returns as well as for individual operators, while users gain enormous benefits.3,4 The studies' apprehensions, regarding trust, willingness to cooperate, and transparency, would not arise if there were mandated pooling through consortiums of operators and the government, and charges based on metering.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A change in regulations alone could mandate that all existing spectrum and networks be freely shared for roaming, depending on capacity and efficiency. Second, unused spectrum, for example, in the 500-800 MHz band, could be made available for secondary sharing to operators paying for metered use. Shared control in consortiums, including the government, would ensure transparency. Similarly, government spectrum could be secondarily shared. Tax collections would increase with additional revenues, as they did dramatically after 2003, when reasonable revenue-sharing rates were introduced for licence fees. USO funds could subsidise rural delivery where necessary for ubiquitous access.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Instead, if we continue with auctions, the 700 MHz band where range and penetration could reduce costs by 70 per cent may remain untouched, because a countrywide five MHz block could cost Rs 55,000 crore, almost a third of industry revenues.</p>
<hr />
<ol>
<li>"Spectrum Auction Strategy - Canada vs Japan", Lars Cosh-Ishii, August 7, 2013: <a href="http://wirelesswatch.jp/2013/08/07/spectrum-auction-strategy-canada-vs-japan/" target="_blank">http://wirelesswatch.jp/2013/08/07/spectrum-auction-strategy-canada-vs-japan/</a>; <span>[Added later: <span>Japan telecommunications market, February 2016</span></span><br /><span><span><a href="http://www.eurotechnology.com/insights/telecom/">http://www.eurotechnology.com/insights/telecom/</a>]</span></span></li>
<li><span><span>"Mobile Infrastructure Sharing": <a href="https://www.itu.int/en%20/ITU-D/Regulatory-Market/Documents/CostaRica/%20Presentations/Session8_Daniel%20Leza%20-%20Mobile%20Infrastructure%20Sharing%20-%2012%20March%202014.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.itu.int/en /ITU-D/Regulatory-Market/Documents/CostaRica/ Presentations/Session8_Daniel Leza - Mobile Infrastructure Sharing - 12 March 2014.pdf</a></span></span></li>
<li><span><span>"A coalitional game model for spectrum pooling in wireless data access networks", Saswati Sarkar, Chandramani Singh, Anurag Kumar, 2008: <a href="http://repository.upenn.edu/ese%20_papers%20/490" target="_blank">http://repository.upenn.edu/ese _papers /490</a></span></span></li>
<li><span><span>"Cooperative Profit Sharing in Coalition Based Resource Allocation in Wireless Networks", Chandramani Singh, Saswati Sarkar, Alireza Aram, Anurag Kumar, 2012: <a href="http://www.ece.iisc.ernet.in/Rs%20anurag/papers/anurag/singh-etal11cooperative-resource-allocation.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.ece.iisc.ernet.in/Rs anurag/papers/anurag/singh-etal11cooperative-resource-allocation.pdf</a><br /><br /></span></span></li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/shyam-ponappa-business-standard-february-3-2016-bottled-up-national-assets'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/shyam-ponappa-business-standard-february-3-2016-bottled-up-national-assets</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2016-03-02T02:21:37ZBlog EntryA Megacorp’s Basic Instinct
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/outlook-february-8-2016-arindam-mukherjee-a-megacorps-basic-instinct
<b>Bolstered by academia and civil society, TRAI stands its ground against FB’s Free Basics publicity blitz.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Arindam Mukherjee was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.outlookindia.com/article/a-megacorps-basic-instinct/296510">published in Outlook</a> on February 8, 2016. Sunil Abraham was quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Hours before the January 31 deadline for telecom regulator TRAI to give its opinion on Facebook’s controversial and expensive Free Basics pitch—which seeks to give India’s poor “free” access to certain partner websites—the consensus seems to be building up against the social media giant. “If there is cannibalising of the internet through services like Free Basics, the internet will be split; it will parcel out and slice the internet. Its future is at stake,” says a senior government official on condition of anonymity.<br /><br />In a climate where the tech-savvy Modi government is seen to be close to the online trinity of Facebook, Google and Twitter, TRAI’s defiant stance in favour of net neutrality stands out. There’s a lot at stake. India’s position becomes crucial as few countries in the world have clearly defined laws on net neutrality or have taken a stand on it. For Facebook, there’s a lot more at stake. India is its second-largest user base after the US (it is banned in China), so it is leaving no stone unturned. The massive Rs 300-crore electronic and print media campaign is an indication of that.<br /><br />TRAI sources say they are ready for any adverse onslaught and they are under no pressure from the PMO. The view gaining ground in government is that FB is trying to create a walled garden where it controls what people see and surf and what they can access online. While this will be offered to consumers for free—the technical term is differential pricing—the websites part of Free Basics will have to pay for being on the platform. Outlook’s queries to FB remained unanswered at the time of going to press.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At an ‘open house’ meeting to discuss TRAI’s consultation paper on differential pricing last week, regulator Ram Sevak Sharma stood firm against the barrage of pro-Free Basics opinions that flowed from FB, telecom operators and some members of the public. TRAI’s message was clear: FB’s tactics of moulding public opinion by stealth will not be acceptable in India. In the past few weeks, there have been bitter exchanges between TRAI and FB over the latter’s responses to a consultation paper on differential pricing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">TRAI’s defiant stand draws from an unprecedented show of strength by civil society against Free Basics and FB’s intentions. Says former Aadhar man Nandan Nilekani, “Free Basics is certainly against net neutrality. How can a solution be neutral, if it disproportionately benefits a particular website or business on the internet? Today, 400 million Indians are online. They came online because of the inherent value the internet offers. How can a walled garden of 100-odd websites provide the same value?”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">What does Free Basics mean for PM Modi’s Digital India campaign? Being a walled garden, thousands of start-ups without adequate budgets to pay for such dedicated service will be forced to stay out of it. Similar questions are being raised about government services that are increasingly coming online. The concern is that all government traffic will have to pass through FB servers. The senior government official quoted above agrees, “In such a scenario, the government will have to approach FB to make its websites accessible on the free service which is neither desirable nor safe.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The other fear is what happens to public data if it goes through a service like Free Basics. There is fear that a lot of government and public data will be put through Free Basics once government services start coming online. If Free Basics is for the poor who are also beneficiaries of government services, FB too can access this data. Says Prabir Purkayastha, chairman, Knowledge Commons, “FB says public service will be available through Free Basics but can public service be given through a private initiative? Public data is valuable and can’t be handed over to a private company.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Few again are convinced by FB’s claim that Free Basics aims to make the internet accessible to the poor, with the many services offered through it. “The claim that the poor will get access to the internet is false,” warns Sunil Abraham, executive director, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. “Free Basics gives access to less than 100 of the one billion plus websites on the world wide web. Those in the walled garden will be treated quite differently.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">What gives TRAI a shot in the arm is that, for the first time, academia has put its weight behind Free Basics opponents. In a signed statement, several IIT and IISc Bangalore professors have said that Free Basics won’t serve the purpose FB is proposing and is not good for the country. “The problem is the internet being provided (via Free Basics) is a shrunken and sanitised version of the real thing. Free Basics is not a good proposal for the long-term development of a healthy and democratic internet setup in India,” says Amitabha Bagchi, IIT Delhi professor and one of the signatories to the memo.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Of course, many of the experts <i>Outlook</i> spoke to say that the government, and not FB, should be responsible for providing free internet to the people. Says Parminder Jeet Singh, executive director, IT for Change, “The government is sitting on Rs 40,000 crore of USO funds. It can surely utilise that to provide a free basic data package to people in India. Basic government services and emergency services should essentially be free.” Nilekani is also in favour of the government providing free internet to people. “The internet is a powerful poverty alleviation tool.... Government can do a direct benefit transfer for data, a more market-neutral way of achieving the goal of getting everyone on the internet,” he told <i>Outlook</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Legally, though, there may be issues in stopping FB from introducing its Free Basics platform in India. Says Singh, “Technically, the Indian government may not be able to stop FB from introducing Free Basics in India as it is just a platform. What the government has to do is to stop telcos from collaborating with it for free internet because Indian telcos, not FB, mediate access to the internet.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The demand for the government and TRAI to come clean on net neutrality has reached fever pitch. Experts like Nilekani feel that net neutrality, which does not allow zero rating and differential pricing based on telcos looking at the contents of the subscriber’s data packets, should be enshrined in law through an act of Parliament, the way countries like the US have done. TRAI has also proposed two models where the internet is provided free initially and charged at a later stage and another where content providers and websites reimburse the cost of browsing directly to consumers. Both these proposals have not found favour with experts who say that these are unworkable and only the government should disburse free internet.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In any case, all this is a matter of detail—important, no doubt. The key question is, what happens to Free Basics if TRAI rules in favour of net neutrality and goes against FB? “This is going to be a long-drawn-out battle as FB will certainly challenge this in court,” says the government official. After spending Rs 300 crore on publicity, there is no way it will roll over and die.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/outlook-february-8-2016-arindam-mukherjee-a-megacorps-basic-instinct'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/outlook-february-8-2016-arindam-mukherjee-a-megacorps-basic-instinct</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaSocial MediaTelecomFree BasicsTRAINet NeutralityFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet Governance2016-02-04T13:53:05ZNews ItemPublic Debate on 'Differential Pricing': Series 3
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/public-debate-on-differential-pricing-series-3
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society, in association with ICRIER and the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai, is pleased to announce “A Series of Public Debates on Differential Pricing” in the cities of Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi. The third public debate will be held at India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road near Air Force Bal Bharti School, New Delhi on February 5, 2016.</b>
<div class="kssattr-target-parent-fieldname-text-b0c8dac0221d45df8f2e6e8e3a8d7a4a kssattr-macro-rich-field-view kssattr-templateId-widgets/rich kssattr-atfieldname-text " id="parent-fieldname-text-b0c8dac0221d45df8f2e6e8e3a8d7a4a">
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In light of the recent consultation paper released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the objective of these debates will be to deconstruct the issue of differential pricing through a discussion on the variety of views this subject has attracted. Speakers will also discuss possible implications of differential pricing policy on questions of access, diversity, competition and entrepreneurship.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Each debate will comprise three rounds. In the first round, speakers will present the body of their arguments over 10 minutes each. The second round will be a rebuttal round, with each speaker being given 5 minutes. The third and final round will see the floor being opened to the audience who will engage the speakers with comments and questions.</p>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/public-debates-on-differential-pricing" class="internal-link">Download the Invite</a></h2>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/public-debate-on-differential-pricing-series-3'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/public-debate-on-differential-pricing-series-3</a>
</p>
No publishervidushiFreedom of Speech and ExpressionTelecomEventInternet Governance2016-01-28T13:53:12ZEventPublic Debate on 'Differential Pricing': Series 2
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/public-debate-on-differential-pricing-series-2
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society, in association with ICRIER and the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai, is pleased to announce “A Series of Public Debates on Differential Pricing” in the cities of Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi. The second public debate will be held at Pherozeshah Mehta Bhavan, Vidyanagari, Kalina, Mumbai on February 3, 2016.
</b>
<div class="kssattr-target-parent-fieldname-text-b0c8dac0221d45df8f2e6e8e3a8d7a4a kssattr-macro-rich-field-view kssattr-templateId-widgets/rich kssattr-atfieldname-text " id="parent-fieldname-text-b0c8dac0221d45df8f2e6e8e3a8d7a4a">
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In light of the recent consultation paper released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the objective of these debates will be to deconstruct the issue of differential pricing through a discussion on the variety of views this subject has attracted. Speakers will also discuss possible implications of differential pricing policy on questions of access, diversity, competition and entrepreneurship.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Each debate will comprise three rounds. In the first round, speakers will present the body of their arguments over 10 minutes each. The second round will be a rebuttal round, with each speaker being given 5 minutes. The third and final round will see the floor being opened to the audience who will engage the speakers with comments and questions.</p>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/public-debates-on-differential-pricing" class="internal-link">Download the Invite</a></h2>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/public-debate-on-differential-pricing-series-2'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/public-debate-on-differential-pricing-series-2</a>
</p>
No publishervidushiFreedom of Speech and ExpressionTelecomEventInternet Governance2016-01-28T13:51:06ZEventPublic Debate on 'Differential Pricing': Series 1
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/a-series-of-public-debates-on-differential-pricing-series-1
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society, in association with ICRIER and the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai, is pleased to announce “A Series of Public Debates on Differential Pricing” in the cities of Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi. The first public debate will be held at the Centre for Internet & Society office in Bangalore on February 1, 2016. </b>
<div class="kssattr-target-parent-fieldname-text-b0c8dac0221d45df8f2e6e8e3a8d7a4a kssattr-macro-rich-field-view kssattr-templateId-widgets/rich kssattr-atfieldname-text " id="parent-fieldname-text-b0c8dac0221d45df8f2e6e8e3a8d7a4a">
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In light of the recent consultation paper released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the objective of these debates will be to deconstruct the issue of differential pricing through a discussion on the variety of views this subject has attracted. Speakers will also discuss possible implications of differential pricing policy on questions of access, diversity, competition and entrepreneurship.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Each debate will comprise three rounds. In the first round, speakers will present the body of their arguments over 10 minutes each. The second round will be a rebuttal round, with each speaker being given 5 minutes. The third and final round will see the floor being opened to the audience who will engage the speakers with comments and questions.</p>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="resolveuid/a01978fec6244f86b178b26006f1b312" class="internal-link">Download the Invite</a></h2>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/a-series-of-public-debates-on-differential-pricing-series-1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/a-series-of-public-debates-on-differential-pricing-series-1</a>
</p>
No publishervidushiFreedom of Speech and ExpressionTelecomEventInternet Governance2016-01-27T13:51:06ZEventTrai promises final call on differential pricing by month-end after 'lively' open house
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/trai-promises-final-call-on-differential-pricing-by-month-end-after-lively-open-house
<b>The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will take a final call on differential pricing by the end of January , its chairman said, describing the open house discussions on the regulator's contentious consultation paper as "lively".</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <a class="external-link" href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/telecom/trai-promises-final-call-on-differential-pricing-by-month-end-after-lively-open-house/articleshow/50675121.cms">article by Economic Times</a> was published on January 22, 2016. CIS gave inputs.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"It was a very lively consultation, the hall was full. We will take all these into account and hope that by the end of the month, we should be able to come out with our position," Trai chairman Ram Sewak Sharma said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Companies.png" alt="Companies" class="image-inline" title="Companies" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">He, however, refused to link this consultation paper to the broader topic of net neutrality . "Net neutrality is a different subject. First we will decide differential pricing, then we will look at other issues. I cannot say at this time what Trai will do on the larger issue of net neutrality , but we will certainly take a call," Sharma said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The open house saw a near packed house, with representatives from Trai, several telecom companies, civil society organisations, industry bodies, and individuals, but the debate did not turn out to be as explosive as the acrimonious lead-up to it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook India's policy head Ankhi Das, whose presence was hugely anticipated after a recent round of high octave communication between Trai and Facebook was made public, did not turn up.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A representative of Facebook, whose zero-rated programme called Free Basics has been at the cent re of the controversy surrounding the differential pricing paper, said: "As a company we have commented. With Free Basics we hope to bring people online in a non-discriminatory manner... We hope Trai will encourage Free Basics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Telcos including Bharti AirtelBSE -0.37 %, Idea CellularBSE 0.05 %, Reliance CommunicationsBSE -1.58 %, Sistema Shyam, Tata Communications, VideoconBSE -0.54 % Telecom, and Vodafone made a case for allowing differential pricing, and most cited extending the practice from voice to data services.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Differential pricing should be incorporated as were done in voice telephony. Data should be encouraged while the content part can be taken up in another consultation paper," a Vodafone representative said.<br /><br />The volunteer-led savetheinternet.in coalition said: "Internet is not a marketplace. Though telcos advocate differential pricing in the name of different customer classes, but when they charge for third party content, it becomes a problem."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Civil society organisations also made detailed submissions, explaining their positions. While most, including industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India, said they were against differential pricing, some took a slightly cautious view. "What hasn't been discussed is that there is already differential pricing and this is undocumented," said a representative of Centre for Internet and Society. "Free Basics isn't following certain protocol standards, and this is a concern. We don't have enough data on internet usage, costs, user experience, to take a decision now," he added.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A representative of Tata CommunicationsBSE 0.58 % said "sponsored data services" exist around the world and argued citing an example that providing free voice service does not confer competitive advantage.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"If there are two pizza vendors: one with a toll-free service for taking orders and the other where you pay money to order without a toll-free service. The uptake in the pizza depends on the quality and the price of the pizzas. It is not because it is a toll free call," he said.<br /><br />This comparison drew laughter in the open house, and became the butt of jokes on Twitter from internet freedom advocates. "Btw, I think a new analogy from the telco guys today, comparing the internet with pizza. How creative," tweeted Nikhil Pahwa, who under the banner of savetheinternet.in has been campaigning for net neutrality.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">IAMAI president Subho Ray's candid commentary on submissions, calling some of them "badly done homework", did not go down well with some members of the audience.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Individual entrepreneurs made a case for not having differential pricing, as that would mean the telcos would get to decide the access for their business. Some people suggested alternatives. Digital Empowerment Foundation founder Osama Manzar said unlicensed spectrum or Wi-Fi could be used to provide access in the rural areas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Trai launched the differential pricing consultation paper on December 9, which was followed by Facebook starting a mass campaign, asking its users to support Free Basics, urging them to email Trai in support of "digital equality" and supporting Free Basics.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/trai-promises-final-call-on-differential-pricing-by-month-end-after-lively-open-house'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/trai-promises-final-call-on-differential-pricing-by-month-end-after-lively-open-house</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaFree BasicsTelecomTRAI2016-01-26T02:41:56ZNews ItemA billion mobile users: new startup profiles and innovation insights from Mobile India 2016
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/yourstory-sneha-maselkar-and-madanmohan-rao-january-14-2016-a-billion-mobile-users
<b>The annual Mobile India conference, for which YourStory was the media partner, wrapped up recently in Bengaluru with a startup showcase and a wide range of insights on mobile innovation in India.</b>
<p>The blog post by Sneha Maselkar and Madanmohan Rao was first published in <a class="external-link" href="http://yourstory.com/2016/01/billion-mobile-users-startup-profiles-innovation-insights-mobile-india-2016/">Your Story</a> on January 14, 2016. Sunil Abraham was quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Chaired by professors V. Sridhar of IIIT Bangalore and D. Manjunath of IIT Bombay, the event’s theme was ‘The App Economy.’ (See <i>YourStory</i> coverage of the earlier editions of this conference: <a href="http://yourstory.com/2015/01/mobile-india-2015-10-tips/" target="_blank">2015,</a> <a href="http://yourstory.com/2014/01/tips-mobile-startups/" target="_blank">2014</a> and <a href="http://yourstory.com/2013/01/mobile-india-2013-conference-highlights-a-world-of-opportunities-for-startups-and-challenges/" target="_blank">2013</a>).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Mobile innovators</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">New products were presented by innovators like Pravin Bhagwat, Founder and Chief Technology Officer, <b>AirTight Networks.</b> The company is creating an app store based on ‘social WiFi,’ riding on Google+ and Facebook. A number of interesting startups like <b>IoTM2MSolutions</b> were also at the event<b>. </b>Founded by Ismail Zabihullahh in 2009, the 15-member team has a range of offerings in home automation, RFID biometrics, street lighting and smart parking solutions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><a href="http://yourstory.com/2015/11/innaccel/" target="_blank">Inaccel</a> </b>is a med-tech accelerator founded in 2014 by Siraj Dhanani, Vijayarajan and Dr. Jagish Chaturvedi. It address the needs, resource and skill gaps, and price-sensitivity of clinical markets, and helps startups conceptualise, design, engineer, and achieve regulatory certification. Its portfolio picks companies with a five-year horizon, in exchange for equity stakes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Dataglen </b>was formed in 2014 by Deva P. Seetharam, Tanuja Ganu, Sunil Ghai and Rajesh Kunnath. It provides Internet of Things (IoT) data collection and management services, and provides an API for users to develop applications on a variety of computing platforms. The startup charges for data management services based on the volume of transactions and for any required customisation services.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><a href="http://yourstory.com/2014/08/czar-securities/" target="_blank">Czar Securities</a> </b>was founded in August 2013 by Shikhil Sharma and Ananda Krishna. Two employees Deepankar Tyagi and Nakul Gulati joined in quick succession. The cyber security solutions company secures corporate IT infrastructure from cyber attacks. Offerings include ASTRA, an intrusion prevention system, as well as penetration testing and security audit services.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Infilect </b>was founded in April 2015 by Vijay Gabale and Anand Prabhu Subramanian. They are building an AI-enabled personalised fashion shopping assistant. The product, Photolect, helps in discovery, search and personalisation for online shoppers by parsing of photos. The product is in beta-test mode with several fashion experts evaluating its features.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><a href="http://yourstory.com/2015/08/sattva-medtech/" target="_blank">Sattva Medtech</a> </b>was founded in 2014 by Vibhav Joshi and Sumedh Kaulgud. They are developing a next-generation fetal health monitoring device which leverages advanced sensors and algorithms. This device, called the Sattva Fetal Lite, has been designed and engineered for use in India and other low-and-mid-income countries; the team has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from InnAccel.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Coeo Labs </b>was founded in October 2014 by Nitesh Kumar Jangir and Nachiket Deval. It is a medical device company, developing products in the field of emergency and critical care. Offerings include a device to reduce chances of acquiring ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), and a mechanical CPAP machine (mCPAP) for transport of neonates with troubled breathing, from a resource-constrained setting to a neonatal ICU.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Comsnets.png" alt="Comsnets" class="image-inline" title="Comsnets" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>IoT scenarios</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Over a dozen experts from India and the US discussed the latest mobile trends in a day of packed panel sessions and keynotes. Interface design, usable security and systems integration are key success factors for IoT, according to Henning Schulzrinne, Professor at Columbia University, and CTO, United States Federal Communications Commission. Consumer and industrial IoT scenarios differ with respect to predictability, redundancy, energy consumption and interoperability.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">He pointed out categories and uses cases of high IoT impacts: automation of manual data extraction (metering), remote maintenance (vending machines), extraction of additional information (thermostats) and software-defined mechanics (locks, switches).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“IoT networks won’t operate just on mobile carriers, but also on other networks such as Zigbee and Bluetooth,” Henning explained. The Internet itself will be transformed by IoT. “Protocols matter, programmability matters more,” he added. The Internet is becoming more than the Internet protocol; plug-and-play is becoming augmented by plug-and-programme in the IoT world.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>The ‘DNA’ of apps</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The proliferation of apps can lead to the rise of localised app stores in local languages, said Chinnu Senthilkumar, CTO, Exfinity Ventures, pointing to Korea as an example in this regard. “Many apps are local. How well do you know the digital literacy of your neighbourhood users,” he asked.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Most apps in India are of the ‘me-too’ type; developers need to incorporate better user experience (UX) and bring in more cross-disciplinary experience (see earlier insights from the <a href="http://yourstory.com/2015/10/magical-times-design-entrepreneur-10-tips-ux-india-2015/" target="_blank">UX India 2015 conference</a> and <a href="http://yourstory.com/2015/10/design-startups-national-product-conclave/" target="_blank">NASSCOM NPC 2015</a>). “Security is still an afterthought in app development,” cautioned Chinnu.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“You need to figure out the DNA of the mobile experience: Device, Network, App,” explained Amar Nagaram, Director, Mobile Engineering, Flipkart. The e-commerce giant classifies devices into four broad categories, and its app design factors in the app size, data stored on the device, and computational power of the device.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Battery requirements of the device and packet drop rates on mobile networks are major constraints on app performance in India. Online shopping lets users interact with catalogues as well as product experts.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“I had to unlearn a lot of things from the Internet world which may not apply in a similar manner to the app world. For example, not all older versions of apps need to be supported,” explained Amar.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Ask yourself, what does your app do for consumers?” advised Pradeep Nair, Co-Founder and CEO, Confianzys. Developers should be looking not at product-market fit, but market-product fit. “Industries die because of their myopia; they focus on past products and not future consumer needs,” he said, urging developers to track-long term megatrends as well.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Telcos’ role in the App Economy</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The telecommunications world is changing rapidly due to trends like IoT, new breeds of apps, video boom and Big Data, observed Ishwardutt Parulkar, Cisco Distinguished Engineer. Telcos are struggling to get new drivers for existing services, new revenue sources, and new sources of consumer loyalty.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Telcos need to provide APIs to developers for embedding telco services and network analytics data. Telcos can also play a bigger role in mobile advertising, for example network-wide ad blocking, as in the case of Jamaica,” advised Ishwardutt. Telcos can exploit synergy with cloud services, and resell SaaS products bundled with telco products.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“We are witnessing major waves of disruptive innovation today: the rise from oblivion to the top is rapid – and so is the fall from the top,” said SR Raja, Associate Vice President, Persistent Systems. Many incumbents tend to suffer from ignorance, inertia, and the inability to do little more than tweak or tinker with existing offerings.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There is a Moore’s Law variant for all architecture components, including programming languages. Hence, telcos need to master new business models blending product and service, advised Raja. “Even regulated industries can be disrupted from outside – look at Uber and Tesla. Will telcos experiment with surge pricing like Uber, or become IoT solutions systems integrators,” he asked. For example, operator O2 has used mobile identity to launch its own messaging OTT app, and Vodafone is getting into IoT services.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Operators and Net Neutrality</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Mobile India conference took place with the backdrop of a heated battle over Net Neutrality between Facebook’s Free Basics and Internet activists from India, which has received a lot of <a href="http://yourstory.com/2015/12/2015-roundup-international-media-india-startups/" target="_blank">media coverage</a> in India and overseas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This calls for the digital media community and entrepreneur ecosystem to pay attention to complex but important issues such as Internet governance. “The next billion users in India may be very different from the current billion, in terms of geography, language and access device,” observed Samiran Gupta, Head-India, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">ICANN’s objective is to maintain inter-operability of the Internet, and there is a unique opportunity for emerging economies to play a stronger role in Internet governance, in issues such as local languages and scripts.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Regulation and digital innovation</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Regulators have major challenges ahead in juggling the needs of multiple stakeholders and demands for different slices of spectrum. “There are 43 different kinds of radio-communication services competing for spectrum,” said Pavan Garg, Former Wireless Adviser, GoI, and former Member, Radio Regulations Board, ITU, Geneva.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Regulators need to become much more savvy on the kind of collusions possible between industry heavyweights, according to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">If India gets its IP regime correct, the local language content economy can be boosted, in addition to other civic benefits. For example, giving anonymised data access to independent researchers has helped LIRNEasia come up with better transportation design in Sri Lanka.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The discussion covered a wide range of interesting possibilities. In the EU, it is mandated that all mobile phones be able to display all European languages. Can India do the same for local languages? Will regulation promote support for Indic language technology on mobiles, or should this be left purely to the market? Organisations such as the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (<a href="http://www.tsdsi.org" target="_blank">TSDSI</a>) is working on Indian language standards in ICTs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The app economy can indeed be accelerated with proactive government intervention, said Parnil Urdhwareshe, Research Assistant at ICRIER and co-author of a report on ‘Impact of India’s App Economy.’ India’s app ecosystem could be worth Rs 2,000 crore in 2016; it created about 75,000 direct jobs in 2015, according to the report.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government can pass regulations on apps covering privacy, Net Neutrality and safety, eg. SoS buttons, medical apps. The <a href="https://ico.org.uk" target="_blank">UK government</a> has drawn up a range of app guidelines covering issues such as in-app purchases.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Design in India is more important than Make In India,” said Vipin Tyagi, Executive Director, C-DOT, drawing attention to issues of participatory design and citizen-centric services rather than only one-way top-down initiatives from government and large industry players.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/MobileIndia.png" alt="Mobile India" class="image-inline" title="Mobile India" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>The road ahead</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Broadband penetration in India is only 10 per cent. By 2018, video will be 62 per cent of India’s mobile data traffic, and there will be 526 million Internet users, according to Anil Kaushal, Member, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government’s BharatNet initiative aims to connect 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats across the country. TRAI has given recommendations for Virtual Network Operators, wherein niche players can offer Smart City services.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In addition to regulators, operators and developers, success of the app economy also rests on responsible user behaviour, said Deepak Maheshwari, Head-Government Affairs, Symantec. “Be more active with respect to data encryption on your device. Use multi-factor authentication,” he advised.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Seventy per cent of India’s population lives in villages; digital innovation will help bring education and healthcare to them, said Vimal Wakhlu, Chairman & Managing Director, TCIL. There are also global extensions and markets for Indian innovations, such as the Pan-African E-Network targeted at 53 countries. There are major uses of ICTs across India, such as monitoring the cleaning of the Ganges as well as water gate management in Gujarat, Vimal added.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“India needs to mandate telecom infrastructure in real estate development and town planning. Digital media will change the way we learn and earn,” said T.R. Dua, Director General, Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) India, and Co-Chair ITU APT Foundation of India.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/yourstory-sneha-maselkar-and-madanmohan-rao-january-14-2016-a-billion-mobile-users'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/yourstory-sneha-maselkar-and-madanmohan-rao-january-14-2016-a-billion-mobile-users</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecomInternet Governance2016-01-17T15:13:42ZNews ItemDecember 2015 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2015-bulletin
<b>Our newsletter for the month of December 2015 is below.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is happy to share the twelfth issue of CIS newsletter (December 2015). Previous editions of the newsletter can be accessed at <a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters">http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters</a>.</p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
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<th>
<h3>Highlights</h3>
</th>
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<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/press-release-india-to-host-4th-global-congress-on-intellectual-property-and-the-public-interest">4th edition of the Global Congress</a> themed around "Three Decades of Openness, Two Decades of TRIPS" was organized in New Delhi from December 15 - 17, 2015. The largest ever in Asia, the Congress was jointly organised by CIS, NLU-D, Open A.I.R., CREATe, Columbia University and American University.</li>
<li>Nehaa Chaudhari <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/4th-global-congress-on-ip-and-the-public-interest-statement-of-conclusion-for-the-ip-and-development-track">summarized the developments of the 4th Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest in a blog post</a> that was originally published on the Global Congress blog.</li>
<li>Sunil Abraham wrote a blog entry stating the <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-position-on-net-neutrality">institutional position of CIS on the Net Neutrality</a> discussion going on in India.</li>
<li>Catch News interviewed Sunil Abraham about the recent advertisement by Facebook titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-shares-10-key-facts-about-free-basics-heres-whats-wrong-with-all-10-of-them"> "What Net Neutrality Activists won't Tell You or, the Top 10 Facts about Free Basics" </a> . Sunil argued against the validity of all the 'top 10 facts'.</li>
<li>Odia author and cultural historian Jagannath Prasad Das <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discover-bhubaneswar-30-books-of-odia-author-and-historian-jagannath-prasad-das-to-come-online-on-odia-wikisource"> has recently permitted 30 volumes of his notable works to be re-license under an open license (Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 or CC-BY-SA 4.0) </a> . Subhashish Panigrahi wrote a blog post on this in Discover Bhubaneswar, a web portal in Odisha.</li>
<li>CIS has established institutional partnerships with University of Mysore and Guru G Learning Labs for furthering Wikipedia growth. Tanveer Hasan <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/analysis-of-institutional-partnerships-university-of-mysore-and-guru-g-learning-lab">analyses the developments and lists out the possible future plans</a> in this regard.</li>
<li>CIS along with Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and Internet Policy Observatory <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/net-neutrality-across-south-asia"> organized an event in New Delhi on Net Neutrality across South Asia </a> .</li>
<li>Today the quantity of data being generated is expanding at an exponential rate. From smartphones and televisions, trains and airplanes, sensor-equipped buildings and even the infrastructures of our cities, data now streams constantly from almost every sector and function of daily life, <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/benefits-and-harms-of-big-data">stated Scott Mason in a blog post</a>.</li>
<li>The Government of India is in the process of developing 100 smart cities in India which it sees as the key to the country's economic and social growth. Vanya Rakesh <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/smart-cities-in-india-an-overview">gave an overview of the Smart Cities project currently underway in India in a blog post</a>.</li>
<li>For the second part of the Smart City podcast series, Sruthi Krishnan and Harsha K from Fields of View spoke with Sumandro Chattapadhyay on data, people, and smart cities. <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/fov-podcast-data-people-and-smart-cities">Fields of View has produced and shared the recording</a>.</li>
<li>An extended survey of digital initiatives in arts and humanities practices in India was undertaken last year. The 'mapping digital humanities in India' enquiry began with the term 'digital humanities' itself, as a 'found' name for which one needs to excavate some meaning, context, and location in India at the present moment. P.P Sneha published the <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/reading-from-a-distance-data-as-text">third</a>,<a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/the-infrastructure-turn-in-the-humanities">fourth</a>, and <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/living-in-the-archival-moment">fifth</a> sections of the study this month.</li>
<li>The RAW programme has initiated a new annual conference series titled Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC). The <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-call">first edition of the Conference</a>, organised around the theme of "studying internet in India" will be held in Delhi in February 2016</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>----------------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility and Inclusion<br /></a>----------------------------------------------</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing a project on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►NVDA and eSpeak</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Monthly Updates</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/december-2015-report">December 2015 Report</a> (Suman Dogra; December 31, 2015).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>-----------------------------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge<br /></a>-----------------------------------------------------------</b><br />As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Copyright and Patent</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/abuse-of-dominant-position-in-indian-competition-law-a-brief-guide">Abuse of Dominant Position in Indian Competition Law: A Brief Guide </a> (Sarthak Sood; December 9, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/gcip2015-notes-from-the-inaugural-session">GCIP2015: Notes from the Inaugural Session</a> (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 14, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/gcip-day-1-session-3-challenges-in-re-articulating-public-interest">GCIP Day 1 Session 3: Challenges in Re-Articulating Public Interest </a> (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 17, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/gcip-15-day-2-discussions-on-health-technology-innovation-and-access">GCIP 15 Day 2: Discussions on Health Technology, Innovation and Access </a> (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 17, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guidelines-for-examination-of-computer-related-inventions-in-abeyance">Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions in abeyance </a> (Anubha Sinha; Anubha Sinha; December 21, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/4th-global-congress-on-ip-and-the-public-interest-statement-of-conclusion-for-the-ip-and-development-track">4th Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest: Statement of Conclusion for the IP and Development track </a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; December 25, 2015). <i>This was also published on the Global Congress Blog</i>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/call-for-participation-global-congress-on-intellectual-property-and-the-public-interest">Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest </a> (Organized by National Law University, Delhi, American Assembly, Columbia University, Open A.I.R., American University, and CIS; New Delhi, December 15 - 17, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Participation in Event</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/code-session">CODE Session</a> (Organized by IDRC; December 17, 2015; New Delhi). Nehaa Chaudhari and Anubha Sinha participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/nlsiu-conference-on-access-to-copyrighted-works-for-persons-with-disability-an-enriching-experience">NLSIU Conference on Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability: An enriching experience </a> (Abolee Vaidya and Nuhar Bansal; SINAPSE; December 14, 2015). <i> This is an event report on a one-day national conference on the 'Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability' for which Pranesh Prakash was a speaker </i> .</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Wikipedia</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discover-bhubaneswar-30-books-of-odia-author-and-historian-jagannath-prasad-das-to-come-online-on-odia-wikisource">30 Books of Odia Author and Historian Jagannath Prasad Das to Come Online on Odia Wikisource </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Discover Bhubaneswar; December 4, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambada-rabibara-subhashish-panigrahi-december-6-2015-odia-wikisource">ଓଡ଼ିଆ</a> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambada-rabibara-subhashish-panigrahi-december-6-2015-odia-wikisource"> </a> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambada-rabibara-subhashish-panigrahi-december-6-2015-odia-wikisource"> ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Sambad; December 6, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-blog-subhashish-panigrahi-december-3-open-access-in-marathi-language-expands-by-thousand-books">Open access in the Marathi language expands by a thousand books </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi and Abhinav Garule; December 3, 2015). <i>This was published on Wikimedia Blog</i>.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guru-g-learning-labs-and-cis-a2k-institutional-partnership">Guru-G Learning Labs and CIS A2K Institutional Partnership </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/community-prioritisation-content-donation-kannada-wikisource">Community Prioritisation of Content Donation: Kannada Wikisource </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/analysis-of-institutional-partnerships-university-of-mysore-and-guru-g-learning-lab">Analysis of Institutional Partnerships: University of Mysore and Guru G Learning Labs </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/department-of-tourism-studies-christ-university-st-aloysius-college">Touch Point Report: Department of Tourism Studies, Christ University and St. Aloysius College, Mangalore </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ttt-2015">TTT 2015</a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-at-mangaluru">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon at Mangaluru</a> (Dr. U.B. Pavanaja; December 29, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Events Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/discussion-on-bringing-peshwa-culture-on-marathi-wikipedia">Talk on bringing 1000 books about the culture of Maharashtra on Marathi Wikipedia </a> (The Energy and Resources Institute; Bangalore; December 1, 2015). Avinash Chaphekar, Joint Secretary, Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha gave a talk.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/odia-wikimedia-community-meetup-at-cuttack">Odia Wikimedia community meetup</a> (Organized by Odia Wikipedia Community and CIS; Cuttack; December 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/events/sau-dhuni-teen-project-december-edit-a-thon-at-womens-studies-centre-university-of-pune">Sau Dhuni Teen Project: December Edit-a-thon </a> (Women's Studies Centre, University of Pune; December 3, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/telugu-wikipedia-day-2015-photo-walk">Telugu Wikipedia Day 2015, Photo Walk</a> (Organized by Telugu Wikipedians; Dr. YSR State Archaeological Museum, Hyderabad; December 13, 2015). Pavan Santhosh attended the event. One of the popular Telugu news channel TV9 covered the event and telecasted the same. <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/telugu-wikipedia-day-2015-eenadu-coverage">Eenadu published a special item on photo walk</a> on December 13, 2015.</li>
<li>English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon (Organized by Wikipedia community; Golden Threshold, Hyderabad; December 20, 2015). The event was covered in<a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/english-wikipedia-and-the-telugu-wikipedia-joint-meetup-and-edit-a-thon-sakshi">Sakshi</a> and <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/english-wikipedia-and-the-telugu-wikipedia-joint-meetup-and-edit-a-thon-andhra-jyoti">Andhra Jyoti</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/post-more-articles-on-kannada-wikipedia">Post More Articles on Kannada Wikipedia</a> (Indian Express; Mangaluru edition; December 12, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p>A Kannada Wikipedia Editathon was conducted in Mangalore on December 10, 2015. The following are the media coverage for the same:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-udayavani-coverage">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Udayavani; December 7, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-vijayavani">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Vijayavani; December 11, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-vijaya-karnataka">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Vijaya Karnataka; December 11, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-in-mangalore-udayavani">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Udayavani; December 11, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-prajavani-mangal">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Prajavani; December 10, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-in-prajavani">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Prajavani; December 13, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>-----------------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance<br /></a>-----------------------------------------------</b><br />As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Free Speech and Expression</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Interview</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-shares-10-key-facts-about-free-basics-heres-whats-wrong-with-all-10-of-them">Facebook shares 10 key facts about Free Basics. Here's what's wrong with all 10 of them </a> (Shweta Sengar; Catch News; December 24, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-position-on-net-neutrality">CIS's Position on Net Neutrality</a> (Sunil Abraham; December 4, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/net-neutrality-across-south-asia">Net Neutrality across South Asia</a> (Organized by Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Internet Policy Observatory and CIS; New Delhi; December 12, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/consultation-on-understanding-the-freedom-of-expression-online-and-offline">Consultation on "Understanding the Freedom of Expression Online and Offline" </a> (Organized by Digital Empowerment Foundation and Association for Progressive Communications; YMCA, New Delhi; December 10, 2015). Jyoti Panday was a speaker at this event.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Big Data</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/benefits-and-harms-of-big-data">Benefits and Harms of "Big Data"</a> (Scott Mason; December 30, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Cyber Security</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ground-zero-summit">Ground Zero Summit</a> (Amber Sinha; December 22, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/news/second-regional-conference-on-connectivity-for-all-future-technologies-markets-and-regulation">Second Regional Conference on Connectivity for All: Future Technologies, Markets and Regulation </a> (Organized by International Telecommunications Society, IIMA IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; New Delhi; December 13 - 15, 2015). Sunil Abraham was a panelist.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/bangalore-chapter-meet-dsci">Bangalore Chapter Meet - DSCI</a> (CIS, Bangalore; December 1, 2015). CIS hosted the Bangalore Chapter Meet of DSCI. Pronab Mohanty, Inspector General of Police gave a talk on Cybercrimes. Sunil Abraham presented the outcome of his study "Anonymity in Cyberspace".</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Privacy</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/uid-research">UID Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-research">DNA Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-policy-research">Privacy Policy Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/sectoral-privacy-research">Sectoral Privacy Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/security-research">Security Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/eight-key-privacy-events-in-india-in-the-year-2015">Eight Key Privacy Events in India in the Year 2015 </a> (Amber Sinha; December 31, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/kick-off-meeting-for-the-politics-of-data-project">Kick Off Meeting for the Politics of Data Project</a> (Organized by Tactical Tech; Phnom Penh; December 7-8, 2015). Amber Sinha participated in the event.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/unbundling-issues-of-privacy-data-security-identity-matrics-for-financial-inclusion">Unbundling Issues of Privacy, Data Security, Identity Matrics, for Financial Inclusion </a> (Organized by Indicus Foundation and MicroSave; December 10, 2015; Metropolitan Hotel and Spa, New Delhi). Sunil Abraham was a speaker.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Miscellaneous</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/smart-cities-in-india-an-overview">Smart Cities in India: An Overview</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p><br /><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/elite-capture-of-governance-in-bangalore">Elite Capture of Governance</a> (Organized by Forum for Urban Governance and Commons; December 16, 2015; Bangalore). Vanya Rakesh participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>--------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a><br />--------------------------------</b><br />CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/the-free-basics-debate-trai-has-a-point-in-imposing-temporary-ban-on-net-neutrality">The Free Basics debate: Trai has a point in imposing temporary ban on net neutrality </a> (Sunil Abraham; FirstPost; December 24, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-2018free-basics2019-app">Millions of Indians Slam Facebook's 'Free Basics' App </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; December 29, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>--------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a><br />--------------------------------</b><br />The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by contemporary concerns to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It is interested in producing local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Upcoming Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/ai-hype-cycles-and-artistic-subversions">A.I. Hype Cycles and Artistic Subversions</a> (CIS, Bangalore; January 22, 2016). Gene Kogan will give a talk.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-call">First Edition of Internet Researchers' Conference</a> (IRC) 2016 - Studying Internet in India: Call for Sessions (Organized by CIS; New Delhi; February 25 - 27, 2016).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/raw-lecture-01-nishant-shah-video">RAW Lecture #01: Nishant Shah on 'Stories and Histories of Internet in India' - Video </a> (P.P. Sneha; December 1, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/fov-podcast-data-people-and-smart-cities">FOV Podcast - Data, People, and Smart Cities</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/reading-from-a-distance-data-as-text">Reading from a Distance - Data as Text</a> (P.P. Sneha; December 7, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/the-infrastructure-turn-in-the-humanities">The Infrastructure Turn in the Humanities</a> (P.P. Sneha; December 7, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/living-in-the-archival-moment">Living in the Archival Moment</a> (P.P. Sneha; December 14, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>---------------------------------<a href="http://cis-india.org/news"><br />News & Media Coverage<br /></a>---------------------------------</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/india2019s-net-neutrality-debate-is-unique-and-complex">India's net neutrality debate is unique and complex </a> (Pratap Vikram Singh; Governance Now; December 14, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-anita-babu-december-23-2015-start-up-india-turns-the-heat-on-facebook-free-basics">Start-up India turns the heat on Facebook Free Basics </a> (Anita Babu; Business Standard; December 22, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/a-scam-masquerading-as-santa">A Scam Masquerading as Santa</a> (Apurva Venkat & Vandana Kamath; Bangalore Mirror; December 25, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-goes-out-all-guns-blazing-in-push-for-free-basics-net-neutrality-advocates-cry-foul">Facebook goes out all guns blazing in push for Free Basics, Net neutrality advocates cry foul </a> (IBN Live; December 29, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-bhuma-shrivastava-december-30-2015-foreign-media-on-zukerberg-india-backlash">Foreign Media on Zuckerberg's India Backlash </a> (Bhuma Shrivastava; NDTV; December 30, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/mark-zuckerberg2019s-india-backlash-imperils-vision-for-free-global-web">Mark Zuckerberg's India backlash imperils vision for free global web </a> (Bhuma Shrivastava; Livemint; December 30, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>---------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS<br /></a>---------------------------------</b><br />The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with diverse abilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Offices</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Bengaluru - No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560071. <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Centre+for+Internet+and+Society/@12.9644512,77.6374907,19z/data=%214m6%211m3%213m2%211s0x3bae141bb474ca25:0xe88eda6c81771517%212sDomlur+Bus+Stop%213m1%211s0x0000000000000000:0x88cd9bce9a1aa4d8?hl=en"> </a> <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Centre+for+Internet+and+Society/@12.9644512,77.6374907,19z/data=%214m6%211m3%213m2%211s0x3bae141bb474ca25:0xe88eda6c81771517%212sDomlur+Bus+Stop%213m1%211s0x0000000000000000:0x88cd9bce9a1aa4d8?hl=en"> Location on Google Map </a> .</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Delhi - First floor, B 1/8, Hauz Khas, near G Block market, after Crunch, New Delhi, 110016.<a href="http://j.mp/cis-delhi"> </a> <a href="http://j.mp/cis-delhi">Location on Google Map</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Follow Us</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a></li>
<li>Twitter - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K"> https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a></li>
<li>Facebook - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k"> https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a></li>
<li>E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: <a href="mailto:a2k@cis-india.org">a2k@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>E-Mail - Researchers at Work: <a href="mailto:raw@cis-india.org">raw@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>List - Researchers at Work: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Support Us</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560 071.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Request for Collaboration</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at <a href="mailto:tanveer@cis-india.org">tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2015-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2015-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchers at Work2016-01-13T14:07:01ZPageMillions of Indians Slam Facebook's ‘Free Basics’ App
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-2018free-basics2019-app
<b>It has been less than two months since the nationwide launch of the Free Basics app in India. The smart phone application (formerly known as Internet.org) offers free access to Facebook, Facebook-owned products like WhatsApp, and a select suite of other websites for users who do not pay for mobile data plans.</b>
<p>This was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://globalvoices.org/2015/12/29/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-free-basics-app/">Global Voices</a> on December 29, 2015.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But the app has already been suspended, at least temporarily, as the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority considers new rules governing network neutrality. Depending on how they're written, the rules could render Free Basics a violation of the policy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Free Basics, which has been deployed in 30 developing countries across the globe, gives users free access to websites that meet Facebook's technical standards for the application. The application does not give users access to the Internet at large. For open Internet advocates, this <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-facebook-marketing-india-20151228-story.html" target="_blank">undercuts consumer choice</a> and violates the principle of network neutrality, under which Internet providers are to treat all Internet traffic equally. Net neutrality allows users equal access to any website they want to visit, and gives website operators equal opportunities to attract visitors.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Polarist.png" alt="Polarist" class="image-inline" title="Polarist" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook has responded to the pending regulation with an <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/17/save-free-basics/" target="_blank">aggressive ad campaign</a> both online and off. Over the last week, Facebook users across India (and <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/tech/facebook-is-accidentally-asking-international-users-to-support-free-basics-in-india/story-CV3pyC5KDOnuJozMWLLWeO.html" target="_blank">some in the US</a>) upon logging into the site have been greeted with notifications urging them to take action. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/savefreebasics" target="_blank">Free Basics</a> page on Facebook now leads to a pleading form that asks users to contact the <a href="http://www.trai.gov.in/" target="_blank">Telecom Regulatory Authority of India</a> (TRAI) and voice their support for making Free Basics available in India. The company has also purchased a smattering of billboard advertisements across the country and taken out numerous two-page ads in leading national newspapers, as seen above.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">The Indian Internet bites back</h3>
<p>Indian netizens and activists have spoken out against the company's actions en masse, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/12/28/mark-zuckerbergs-latest-bid-to-get-india-on-board-with-free-basics-internet-is-like-a-library/" target="_blank">protesting</a> heavily on social media, blogs and newspapers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The grassroots open Internet group, <a href="http://www.savetheinternet.in/" target="_blank">SavetheInternet.in</a>, that has been advocating for net neutrality in India throughout 2015, has launched an email campaign asking users to send letters to TRAI explaining how Free Basics violates net neutrality principles and propagates an inaccurate picture of the Internet for new users by placing it inside the confines of Facebook's application.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Multiple stand-up comedy groups have created videos explaining the regulatory debate and supporting net neutrality, which have gone viral:</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AAQWsTFF0BM" width="560"></iframe> <br /> Above, the third in a series of videos created by All India Bakchod, in partnership with SavetheInternet.in. Below, a video by East India Comedy.</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UCwaKje44fQ" width="560"></iframe> <br /> The issue has also been hotly debated on Twitter, with technology and law experts leading the way.</p>
<p>Internet policy expert and lead staff member of the Center for Internet and Society in Bengaluru Pranesh Prakash tweeted:</p>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/PraneshTweet.png" alt="Pranesh Tweet" class="image-inline" title="Pranesh Tweet" /></p>
<p>New Delhi-based technology lawyer Mishi Choudhary, who leads the legal team at the Software Freedom Law Center, tweeted:</p>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/MishiTweet.png" alt="Mishi" class="image-inline" title="Mishi" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Free Software Movement of India, a non-profit promoting use of free software and its philosophy in India via their local chapters, also has <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/FSMI-Hyderabad-launches-campaign-against-Free-Basics/articleshow/50341156.cms" target="_blank">taken</a><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/FSMI-Hyderabad-launches-campaign-against-Free-Basics/articleshow/50341156.cms" target="_blank"> the campaign</a> to the streets where the volunteers raised public awareness about Free Basic's adverse side.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Apart from local experts and activists, companies like Reddit, Truecaller and Indian e-commerce platform Paytm have <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/12/28/aib-eic-facebook-free-basics/#0Gg8lzzilgqw" target="_blank">publicly shared</a> their opposition to Facebook's actions.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook targets open Web activists</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook is paying close attention to civil society opposition to its activities in India. Across the globe, the company's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/savefreebasics">Free Basics page</a> now opens to a plea for users to contact TRAI, and includes a statement that directly targets open Internet advocates, suggesting that their motives are somehow driven by financial incentives:</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">…Free Basics is in danger in India. A small, vocal group of critics are lobbying to have Free Basics banned on the basis of net neutrality. Instead of giving people access to some basic internet services for free, they demand that people pay equally to access all internet services – even if that means 1 billion people can't afford to access any services.</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">SavetheInternet.in explicitly states in their <a href="http://blog.savetheinternet.in/about/" target="_blank">About page</a> that they are entirely volunteer-run and have no affiliation with any political party in India or elsewhere.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Users also have tweeted screenshots alleging that Facebook is restricting access for individuals sending messages opposing Free Basics. This has not been confirmed, but the tweets have only further stoked public frustration with the company.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Facebook.png" alt="Facebook" class="image-inline" title="Facebook" /></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Zuckerberg vs. SavetheInternet</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On December 28, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg penned a piece in the Times of India arguing that Free Basics will help “achieve digital equality for India,” and claiming that the initiative “isn’t about Facebook’s commercial interests.” India represents the world's largest market of Internet users after the US and China, where Facebook remains blocked.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In response, Nikhil Pawa, founder of online portal MediaNama and a volunteer with Savetheinternet.in, <a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/its-a-battle-for-internet-freedom/" target="_blank">authored</a> a critical opinion piece in the same newspaper:</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">[…] Why hasn’t Facebook chosen the options that do not violate Net Neutrality? For example, in India, Aircel has begun providing full internet access for free at 64 kbps download speed for the first three months….In Bangladesh, Grameenphone users get free data in exchange for watching an advertisement. In Africa, Orange users get 500 MB of free access on buying a $37 handset…<br /><br /> […]<br /></blockquote>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">Facebook is being disingenuous — as disingenuous as the company’s promotional programmes for Free Basics to its Indian users — when it says that Free Basics is in conformity with Net Neutrality.</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pawa also quoted Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Indian state of Odisha, who wrote to TRAI supporting net neutrality. “If you dictate what the poor should get, you take away their right to choose what they think is best for them,” he wrote.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; ">“If you dictate what the poor should get, you take away their right to choose what they think is best for them.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Writing for Quartz, technology critic <a href="http://qz.com/582587/mark-zuckerberg-cant-believe-india-isnt-grateful-for-facebooks-free-internet/" target="_blank">Alice Truong expressed similar sentiment:</a> “Zuckerberg almost portrays net neutrality as a first-world problem that doesn’t apply to India because having some service is better than no service.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For Mahesh Murthy, an Indian venture capitalist and self-described net neutrality activist, it all comes down to revenue. <a href="http://thewire.in/2015/12/26/facebook-is-misleading-indians-with-its-full-page-ads-about-free-basics-17971/">On the Wire,</a> Murthy offered untempered criticism of Facebook and Zuckerberg's efforts to appease the country's leaders:</p>
<blockquote class="quoted" style="text-align: justify; ">[..] Unlike Facebook, who tried to silently slime this thing through last year when it was called Internet.org, and then are spending about Rs. 100 crores on ads – a third of its India revenue? – to try and con us Indians this year again. This is after we’d worked hard to ban these kind of products, technically called “zero rating apps” last year.[..] This Facebook ad [spread] doesn’t include the full-on Mark Zuckerberg love event put up for our Prime Minister when he visited the US, aimed again at greasing the way for this Free Basics thing through our government.</blockquote>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-2018free-basics2019-app'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-2018free-basics2019-app</a>
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No publishersubhaFree BasicsSocial MediaTelecomInternet Governance2015-12-30T14:37:09ZBlog EntrySecond Regional Conference on Connectivity for All: Future Technologies, Markets and Regulation
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/second-regional-conference-on-connectivity-for-all-future-technologies-markets-and-regulation
<b>This conference organized by the International Telecommunications Society, IIMA IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad was held in New Delhi from December 13 to 15, 2015. Sunil Abraham was a panelist in the session "Going beyond Cybersecurity: Internet Governance Issues".</b>
<p align="justify" class="p0">Click to read the conference details published by International Telecommunications Society <a class="external-link" href="http://www.itsindia2015.com/">here</a>. Download the Agenda <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/second-regional-conference-on-connectivity-for-all" class="internal-link">here</a>.</p>
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<p align="justify" class="p0">The wide availability of Internet/broadband has been a significant driver of economic growth especially in developed countries. On the contrary, emerging economies lag far behind in Internet/broadband penetration even in urban areas. Further, as emerging economies have poor infrastructure as well as physical service deployment platforms, higher penetration of Internet/broadband could serve as an effective platform for social programmes' delivery. However, the increasing gap in penetration, speed and adoption of Internet/broadband between developed and emerging economies is likely to reduce the ability of the latter to participate in an equitable way in the global knowledge and service economy. As the gap increases, the ability of emerging economies to bridge the digital divide becomes more significantly daunting and is a major cause of concern for policymakers.</p>
<p align="justify" class="p0">The challenges for connectivity in the developed and emerging economies are diverse. While developed countries face issues in providing higher speeds, bandwidth and connectivity among devices to large parts of their population who have basic Internet/broadband, emerging economies still struggle for establishing universal access and providing basic Internet/broadband to their citizens. Even where Internet/broadband is available, adoption may not be adequate especially in the rural and remote areas.</p>
<p>The wired infrastructure in emerging economies is poor, however, the mobile phones are ubiquitous. Therefore, mobile Internet/broadband could be an effective way for increasing Internet/broadband penetration. Technological and regulatory changes, especially those related to spectrum, are necessary to leverage these opportunities.</p>
<p align="justify" class="p0">A related aspect of growth in Internet/broadband is the increasing role of Internet governance frameworks at national, regional and international levels. The challenge for nations is how to leverage this framework for growth of Internet/broadband and play a greater role in Internet governance.</p>
<p align="justify" class="p0">A multi-pronged approach is required to address these diverse issues. A supportive environment for policy, regulatory and technology development is required. This conference provides a platform for dialogue between researchers, industry practitioners, government and regulatory bodies to search for collaborative solutions.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/second-regional-conference-on-connectivity-for-all-future-technologies-markets-and-regulation'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/second-regional-conference-on-connectivity-for-all-future-technologies-markets-and-regulation</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaTelecomInternet Governance2015-12-27T16:16:09ZNews ItemThe Free Basics debate: Trai has a point in imposing temporary ban on net neutrality
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/the-free-basics-debate-trai-has-a-point-in-imposing-temporary-ban-on-net-neutrality
<b>The argument against net neutrality in India is simple. Regulation cannot be based on dogma – evidence of harm must be provided before you can advocate for rules for ISPs and telecom operators.</b>
<p>The article was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.firstpost.com/india/the-free-basics-debate-trai-has-a-point-in-imposing-temporary-ban-on-net-neutrality-2558884.html"><b>FirstPost</b></a> on December 24, 2015.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">But net neutrality regardless of your preferred definition is a very complex regulatory question and there is no global or even national consensus on what counts as relevant evidence. To demonstrate the chain of causality between network neutrality violations and a variety of potential harms - expertise in a wide variety of fields such as economics, competition law, telecom policy, spectrum allocation, communications engineering and traffic management is required. Even with a very large research budget and a multidisciplinary team it would be impossible to predict with confidence what the impact of a particular regulatory option will be on the digital divide or innovation. And therefore the advocates of forbearance say that the Indian telecom regulator — Trai — should not regulate unprecedented technical and business model innovations like Facebook's Free Basics since we don't understand them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Till recently I agreed with this empirical line of argument. But increasingly I am less convinced that scientific experiment and evidence is the only basis for regulation. Perhaps there is a small but necessary role for principles or ideology. Like the subtitle of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book, we need to ask: How to Live in a World We Don't Understand. Let us take another area of technological regulation – cyber security. Do we really need to build a centralised database containing the passwords of all netizens and perform scientific experiments on it to establish that it can be compromised? A 100 percent centralised system has a single point of failure and therefore from a security perspective centralisation is almost always a bad idea. How are we so sure that such a system will be compromised at some date? To quote Sherlock Holmes: “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Decentralisation eliminates the possibility of a single point of failure thereby growing resilience. The Internet is perhaps the most famous example. It is not necessarily true that all decentralized systems are more secure than all centralised system of a decentralized network but it is usually the case. In other words, the principle of decentralisation in cyber security does not require repeated experimental confirmation across<br />markets and technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To complicate matters, the most optimal solutions developed using economics and engineering may not be acceptable to most stakeholders. Professor Vishal Misra has provided a Shapley Value solution using cooperative game theory in the multi-sided market to determine how surplus should be divided between three types of ISPs [eyeball, transit and content] and Internet companies using transparent paid transit arrangements. But a migration from the current opaque arrangement to the Misra solution may never happen because Internet companies will resist such proposals and are increasingly getting into access provision themselves through projects like Google Fibre and Loom. Walter Brown from South African Communications Forum proposes that billing by minutes for phone calls and billing by message for SMSes should be prohibited because on 4G networks voice and text messages are carried as data and price is the best signal to consumers to ensure optimum use of network resources. This according to Walter Brown will eliminate the incentive for telcos to throttle or block or charge differently for VOIP traffic. Again this solution will not be adopted by any regulator because regulators prefer incremental changes with the least amount of disruption.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">So given that we only have numbers that we can't trust - what should be some of the principles that form the bedrock of our net neutrality policy? To begin with there is the obvious principle of non-discrimination. The premise is simple – anyone who has gate-keeping powers might abuse it. Therefore we need to eliminate the possibility through regulation. Non-exclusivity is the result of non-discrimination and transparency is its precondition. That can also be considered as a principle and now we have three core principles to work with. Maybe that is sufficient since we should keep principles to the bare minimum to keep regulation and compliance with regulation simple. Some net<br />neutrality experts have also identified fairness and proportionality as additional principles. How do we settle this? Through transparent and participatory policy development as has been the case so far. Once we have principles articulated in law - how can we apply them to a specific case such as Facebook's Free Basics? Through the office of the appropriate regulator. As Chris Marsden advocates, net neutrality regulations should ideally be positive and forward looking. Positive in the sense that there should be more positive obligations and incentives than prohibitions and punitive measures. Forward looking in the sense that that the regulations should not retard or block technological and business model innovations. For example zero-rated walled gardens could be regulated by requiring that promoters such as Facebook also provide 50Mb of data per day to all users of Free Basics and also by requiring that Reliance provides the very same free service to other parties that want to compete with Facebook with similar offerings. Alternatively, users of Free Basics should get access to the whole Internet every other hour. All these proposal ensure that Facebook and it business partners have a incentive to innovate but at the same time ensures that resultant harms are mitigated.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Just to be absolutely clear, my defense of principle based regulation does not mean that I see no role for evidence and research. As regulation gets under way – further regulation or forbearance should be informed by evidence. But lack of evidence of harm is not an excuse for regulatory forbearance. India is the last market on the planet where the walled garden can be bigger than the Internet – and Facebook is sure giving it its very best shot. Fortunately for us Trai has acted and acted appropriately by issuing a temporary prohibition till regulation has been finalised. Like the US, coming up with stable regulation may take 10 years and we cannot let Facebook shape the market till then.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/the-free-basics-debate-trai-has-a-point-in-imposing-temporary-ban-on-net-neutrality'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/the-free-basics-debate-trai-has-a-point-in-imposing-temporary-ban-on-net-neutrality</a>
</p>
No publishersunilTelecomFeaturedNet Neutrality2015-12-25T14:58:30ZBlog EntryGauging Users' Reactions Towards Zero Rating
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/gauging-users-reactions-towards-zero-rating
<b>In the ongoing debate about zero-rated plans and net neutrality, this blog post aims to study the possible effects of a survey conducted in Bangalore to gauge users' reactions towards such plans, and specifically "limited packs" offered by major telecom companies.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I would like to thank Amba Kak, on whose research the survey was conducted.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Zero-rating is the practice of not counting (aka “zero-rating”) certain traffic towards a subscriber’s regular Internet usage. There are different types of zero-rating that exist in the market.<a href="#fn1" name="fr1">[1] </a>For example, Facebook Free Basics or Internet.org as it was formerly known is a platform which provides limited content to subscribers, free of cost.<a href="#fn2" name="fr2">[2] </a>Airtel Zero is another such platform that provides free content to subscribers. Instead of charging these subscribers, the providers who choose to get on the platform are charged.<a href="#fn3" name="fr3">[3] </a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Social media packs offered by major telecom companies are another variation of zero-rating. For a fraction of the price of regular data plans, users have access to apps like Facebook and Whatsapp. As per the Airtel website, a Whatsapp pack that allows 200 MB of Whatsapp for a month costs INR 46 in Karnataka.<a href="#fn4" name="fr4">[4] </a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I conducted a small survey in Bangalore to determine the effects these limited social media packs have on users. I conducted interviews that were spread over five days in three different localities in Bangalore. I interviewed eight people and five recharge shops about their take on these limited packs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I targeted two groups of users: new users of the Internet, and early adopters. The group of interviewees comprised of three university students, two shopkeepers, and three watchmen. I also talked to recharge shops in the neighbourhoods of the interviewees.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Through my research, I wanted to understand how users reacted to these social media packs, and gauge the popularity of these packs. This is where feedback from recharge shops would have been useful, however, what was surprising was that none of the shops I talked to offered these plans. Two out of the five shops had not even heard of Facebook or Whatsapp packs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The fact that recharge shops did not offer these services made it difficult to identify subscribers of limited packs. I instead decided to talk to users of mobile internet, and discern their interest towards such packs. My questions followed a specific format: I’d find out which service provider the user subscribed to, their billing structure, their internet browsing patterns, whether they had heard of limited packs, and their interest towards such packs. Out of the people I interviewed, only three expressed interest towards these packs, Whatsapp in particular. For two of them, Whatsapp was the only service they used on their phones, and a Whatsapp pack seemed more useful to them than a regular data pack.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I also wanted to find out how much of an effect price played on the users while they chose a data plan. Even though a limited pack is substantially cheaper than a regular<a href="#fn5" name="fr5">[5] </a>data plan, six out of the eight users said they would choose an all-access data pack. Three of these six users expressed wariness towards such plans as they found the billing structures confusing. They were nervous about the possibility of being charged unfairly high rates in the accidental case of accessing services that were not provided by the limited packs. Further, three of the others were of the opinion than a regular data pack with full access to the internet was preferable to the limited access services provided by these packs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">From these interviews, one can assume that knowledge of these limited packs is low among both users and recharge shops, and the takers for the same are minimal. It would be hasty to jump to the conclusions from this admittedly anecdotal evidence, keeping in mind the small pool of interviewees, but it raises interesting questions with no easy answers: how great a factor is price for the users while choosing limited packs over regular internet packs? Perhaps more importantly, do these packs confine users to the walled garden, or will they venture out of it in order to access the whole Internet? <a href="#fn6" name="fr6">[6] </a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">My findings explore a tiny proportion of what users think about these plans. However, there is a long way to go for policy and regulation decisions.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>]. The Background Paper to CIS Submission for TRAI Consultation on Regulatory Framework for OTT Services which can be found here: http://trai.gov.in/comments/24-April/Attachments-75/2015-04-24_CIS-background-paper_Net-neutrality.pdf</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]. Facebook, Reliance Communications launch Internet.org in India by Nimish Sawant for Firstpost</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>]. Airtel Offers Customers Free Access to Select Apps With 'Airtel Zero'</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr4" name="fn4">4</a>]. The tariff rates can be found <a class="external-link" href="http://www.airtel.in/whatsapp/?cid=social21491444">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr5" name="fn5">5</a>]. For example, an Airtel Whatsapp pack is less than half the price of a one month 2G connection</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr6" name="fn6">6</a>]. Zero for Conduct by Susan Crawford for Backchannel</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/gauging-users-reactions-towards-zero-rating'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/gauging-users-reactions-towards-zero-rating</a>
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No publisherAadya MisraTelecomSocial Media2015-11-25T15:30:14ZBlog Entry