Re: cellular operator association has bizarre interpretation of Net neutrality

My first reaction to this story was four million? That's all?

According to the WiKi, India has an estimated 970,955,980 cell phone users.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use

It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to believe that the cellular 
operators have close to 4 million people between their employees and 
families.

Cordially,

Ken DiPietro
Cumberland MD

On 05/07/2015 02:43 AM, Arun Mehta wrote:
>
> The cellular operators want the exact opposite of Net neutrality. They 
> want anyone offering Net telephony, such as Skype, Whatsapp and Google 
> Hangouts, to be forced to obtain a license and pay license fees.  If 
> not, they will be forced to raise the cost for the awful data 
> connectivity they offer by up to 6 times! Gee. Blackmail!
>
> They claim that within 10 days of launching an online campaign, they 
> already have 4 million messages of support.
>
> I would like to know how they formulated the questions they asked. 
> Unfortunately, you can't get any information from their website, until 
> you register. Talk about openness.
>
> Airtel has already received a thrashing on Net neutrality. What does 
> COAI expect, after such blackmail attempts?
>
> warmly,
>
> Arun Mehta
>
> http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/net-neutrality-cellular-operators-association-gets-support-of-4-million-indians-265981.html
>
> Four million mobile subscribers have supported COAIÂ’s campaign 
> favouring net neutrality for internet-based communication services 
> like WhatsApp and Skype and their being subject to norms similar to 
> those applying to mobile phone operators, the apex body of cellular 
> operators said.
>
> “Sabka Internet, Sab ka Vikas — the campaign for net neutrality, net 
> equality and consumer choice, has received support from over 40 lakh 
> Indian mobile users in under a week,” the Cellular Operators 
> Association of India (COAI) said in a statement here.
>
> “The entire mobile number database of supporters is auditable on 
> request by the appropriate agency,” it added.
>
> Launched last week, “Sabka Internet, Sab ka Vikas”, a campaign about 
> making the Internet accessible and affordable for every Indian, seeks 
> a level playing field with net-based services like Skype and WhatApp.
>
> The industry body said if the telecom operators are not offered a 
> level playing field with net-based services, then their businesses 
> would be viable only by raising data prices by up to six times.
>
> It comes against the backdrop of the debate over net neutrality and 
> allegations that telecom operators are hurting the concept of free 
> internet access by giving preferential treatment to a select few 
> service providers.
>
> “COAI started the outreach effort to ensure that mobile customers have 
> the freedom to benefit from the power of the Internet in the way they 
> would wish to, including the choice of platform, device and 
> technology,” said COAI director general Rajan S. Mathews.
>
> The net neutrality principle came into focus in India following mobile 
> operator Airtel’s launch of an open marketing platform ‘Airtel Zero’, 
> and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of IndiaÂ’s consultation paper on 
> whether telecom firms could be allowed to charge different rates for 
> different uses of Internet data such as e-mail, browsing and for use 
> of apps like Whatsapp, Viber and Skype.
>
> /IANS/
>
>
>
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