Jio, Airtel want govt to revisit net neutrality rules to reap 5G benefits

Top telcos Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel want policymakers to revisit the net neutrality rules to best utilise 5G technology that offers features like slicing of a network and offering dedicated and differential experience to an enterprise, which may fall foul of equal-Internet-for-all rules.

"Net neutrality is very critical and essential. Having said that, there has to be certain flexibility such that the capability 5G brings, such as network slicing, URLLC and the ability to do latency sensitive services can be suitably offered. India needs to figure a way out to be flexible in its approach to net neutrality," said Mathew Oommen, president at Reliance Jio.

Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) under 5G ensures more efficient scheduling of data transfers, achieving shorter transmissions through a larger subcarrier, and even allows scheduling of overlapping transmissions. These are mainly used for offering differentiated experiences for enterprises. Going forward, telcos expect their enterprise business to contribute some 40% of 5G revenue.

Oommen said policy needs to evolve with technology change. “And net neutrality is a very classic example. 5G brings a lot of unique capabilities. So how net neutrality and 5G capabilities coexist together…that’s what we need to work towards with the policymakers to achieve so that no one loses on the inherent capabilities of 5G.”

A senior Bharti Airtel executive also backed Oommen saying India must relook at the net neutrality laws to pave the way for new use cases running on the 5G technology, especially around industry 4.0.

“Net neutrality should be seen with an open approach now. 5G comes with slicing capability built in which will allow new use cases and the rules need to change and be opened up,” the executive said, asking not to be identified.

Net neutrality principle calls for ensuring equal access to the Internet for all. Since 2018, India has had among the strongest free web rules in the world, say experts. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) defines net neutrality as the concept of non-discrimination of internet traffic by intermediate networks on any criteria.

"The network should be neutral to all the information being transmitted through it. All communication passing through a network should be treated equally, independent of its content, application, service, device, sender or recipient address," DoT rules say. India’s net neutrality rules also prohibit differential pricing of data.

To be sure, according to recent rules on spectrum leasing, DoT has allowed carriers to offer captive private networks as a service to enterprises through network slicing over its public network.

Industry experts say network slicing allows 5G operators to run multiple virtualised and independent networks on a common physical architecture. Each slice or portion of the network can be tailored to serve specific use cases, which will create differentiated experiences for different people, going against the principles of net neutrality.

Nunzio Mirtillo, head of Southeast Asia, Oceania and India for Sweden’s Ericsson separately told ET that if network slicing is going to help enterprises and enable various use cases, the Indian government should look at how it can be enabled.

“So, I think that when it comes to network slicing and net neutrality, they [authorities] will discuss that and will come up with something that makes sense for India. I believe they will find a solution that makes sense,” he added.