New Delhi: Content handed over through closed or internal net-work which does not travel over the internet-will not be governed by the order prohibiting differential tariffs for data services, Trai chairman R S Sharma has said. Sharma said the regulator’s recent order prohibiting differential tariffs for data applies only to services provided through the internet, “and not under our domain,” the Trai chief told ToI, amid speculation on whether content pushed through internet-or closed user groups-will be covered by the order. “The regulation makes this point clear, and I do not wish to elaborate further. Trai is not concerned about anything that does not flow over internet.”
Which Trai’s order of February 8- Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulation clearly order equality in pricing of content over the internet, it makes an exception for data services provided over “closed electronic communication networks” (CECN). The exemption, fear internet and net neutrality activists, may prompt telecom operators to offer lucrative content over intranet- or virtual private networks and closed user groups (CUG) that they form with their subscribers- at subsidized rates, or below the prices charged over the internet.
