They may give you 'free internet' but they will take away your freedom, forever.
Before reading this, my humble request to you, is that, please don't take this issue lightly as it is a very big concern, not only for us but for the coming generations as well. Share it as much you can till it reaches every last Indian online.
The education system has changed a lot over a past few decades. Nowadays a lot of online coaching and tutorials are coming in. Students prefer them for their ease and better content rather than the conventional class room teachings.
Let us imagine you are appearing for an exam. And the prospectus of the entrance exam says, "If you do coaching from X institute, you will get 10% more marks and if you do it from Y coaching you will get 50% more marks."
Now anyone in their right mind won't like this. Would you?
Now let's say, this is not enough and the prospectus goes beyond any logic, rationality and starts luring you by giving offers like 50% discount if you join X coaching only, 20% discount if you join Y and no discount, rather hike in fees if you join Z, which is your choice of tutorial to begin with.
How would you feel? Absolutely frustrated and dejected.
Right?
Our internet is somewhat like our education system i.e. neutral. But once this neutrality goes out, things will be completely different and this process will be irreversible. There will be many casualties. One of them, which is very close to my heart is access to quality and affordable education. And sadly, our renowned telecom companies are on their way towards creating barriers against net neutrality.
So what is this Net Neutrality?
It means that the volume of data/bandwidth, which we consume and enjoy should solely be based on our discretion and not the other way round. Simply put, ISPs (internet service providers) like Airtel, Idea, Vodafone, Docomo, etc., should not, either positively or negatively, discriminate towards any particular app or a website, just because they own that company, it's run by a family member or they have entered in partnership with some brand, after getting hefty sums.
Suppose tomorrow Allen or Aakash or any big player joins hands with Airtel and says that you can watch our online videos for free but for other apps like Unacademy or any other new startup, you need to pay for that particular bandwidth and get an "Education pack".
After seeing the above pic constantly, let's assume that you get this "Education pack" because you realized that the Unacademy videos are awesome and the only ones on Internet, which are worth watching.
But after sometime, just to eliminate competition, the big coaching houses pay Airtel tons of money, so that, even after getting the "Education pack", you are not able to open the Unacademy app because the bandwidth provided to the Unacademy app is too low and it takes forever to launch/start it.
Now what can you do?
The answer is: NOTHING.
You will have to live with these so called 'free brands' and settle for something which is mediocre, sub-par and of inferior quality.
Congratulations! You just had your first taste of "closed Internet", with differential data usage.
Just for once imagine, if a product like Yahoo answers or ask.com would have partnered with ISPs 10 years ago, we will not be having this discussion here at all, as Quora would not exist. Plain and simple.
Let's take my example. I bought my first phone when I got into college (impossible to imagine for younger generation that how is it even possible to survive the school without posting a "attention and like seeking" pout selfie on Facebook) and since the last 7 years, I have been using Airtel prepaid connection to:
- Connect with family and friends over messages on Whatsapp.
- For making educational videos on YouTube and helping UPSC and medical aspirants who can't afford coaching.
- Answering incessant queries of aspirants and resolving their doubts on Facebook, Unacademy app, Gmail etc.
- And surfing internet endlessly for 10-12 hours everyday.
Now let's assume they say that just to upload a video on YouTube, I need to pay for an "Upload Pack" as my ISP has partnered with Vimeo.
I won't like it, neither would you.
So, to prevent such a horrendous scenario, I urge you to log on to SaveTheInternet and send an email to TRAI.
Internet is just like a caring brother, with whom many of us have grown up, and are completely dependent upon. It has never asked for anything in return from us, until now.
Do your bit and save the internet. Don't let them break the Internet.
PS: This is the article written by Roman Saini, Quora. I found out it to be very informative and worth sharing.