Government Body NIXI Stands for Net Neutrality, Says its Against Selective App Bundling

Yesterday the deadline to cast a vote for saving the internet ended. Though we have to wait for the final take of the government on the issue, Neutral Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) has given its answer. The body under IT ministry said that it fully backs Net Neutrality and any move to bundle apps would go against the concept of Internet.

NIXI made a remark –

National Internet Exchange of India as the neutral exchange in the country, strongly supports Neutrality of the Internet which is the only way forward to make the Internet open, free and innovative.

Any move by Telcos to bundle application or content selectively will hamper the very basic concept of Internet.

The government-run organisation also expressed concern over the impact of discriminatory Internet on budding businesses. NIXI commented, “Under these circumstances any dilution of the neutrality of the Internet, is expected to affect the freedom of expression, development of innovative ideas and newer applications and entrepreneurship of youngsters and start-ups.” A couple of days back, a number of tech start-ups wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister of India asking for a free internet. They mentioned how the emerging companies would suffer and would never be able to become the next Google and Amazon.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is yet to give a response to over 1 million emails supporting SaveTheInternet.in campaign, but the organisation is not bound by any time frame. In such circumstances, the telecom operators are open to implementing any plan. The volunteer group behind ‘Save the Internet’ program is requesting the government to impose a temporary restriction on telcos to roll out any plan until the final verdict.