He has opposed many of the agency’s reforms during his almost five-year tenure, including the net neutrality regulations passed in 2015. Net neutrality is a regulation that works against collusion on the Internet, and prime among Pai’s targets is the FCC’s 2015 set of net neutrality rules, which re-classified Internet service providers as “common carriers”—in other words, on the same footing as utility firms. Net neutrality is the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. India had no net neutrality laws at the time, so the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India—after reaching out to the Indian public for feedback—took a decision in February 2016 that prohibited telecom service providers from levying discriminatory rates for different packet types, thereby effectively establishing net neutrality in India. If net neutrality were lost, it would allow a carrier such as Airtel or AT&T to restrict access based on what Internet businesses are willing to pay them.

Source: Mint February 20, 2017 19:30 UTC