Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT favours net neutrality

NEW DELHI: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology (PSCIT) has expressed its support for net neutrality, saying that a customer should be free to surf the Internet without any discrimination towards any website or service.

Anurag Thakur, Chairman, PSCIT, told ET: "There should be independence for the customer in usage of the net once a data pack has been paid for.”

He added that there “should not be a check to see if the person is visiting site ‘A’ or ‘B’ once he has paid the telecom operator for data.”

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has received over three lakh emails in support of net neutrality.

It will submit its report on the subject in the second week of May.

"Meanwhile, more I am glad that this debate has come up during this time, especially when the government is also going for digital governance in a big way...It is important that these issues are thrashed out and a consensus opinion be taken on board,” he said.