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[font=proxima-extrabold1, roboto, arial, sans-serif]Broadband speed revision: DoT, TRAI get Notice[/font][/font]
[font=proxima-semibold, proxima-extrabold1, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=medium][font=proxima-regular1,]RAIPUR: Amid talks about Digital India's need for high-speed data, a unique Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has come up before Chhattisgarh High court, challenging the unusual delay in revising the existing broadband speed to 2 Mbps and the centre's failure to implement National Telecom Policy 2012.
A division bench of chief justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sam P Koshy issued notices to department of telecommunications, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Deputy Director General, telecom enforcement resource and monitoring, on a PIL filed by a 61-year-old social worker Dilip Kumar Bhandari. The next date of hearing has been fixed for December 5.
The petitioner said that the authorities are not complying and negligently ignoring National Telecom Policy 2012 wherein it has been specifically mentioned about revising existing broadband speed from 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps and subsequently to 2 Mbps by 2015 and higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps thereafter. The PIL, filed through counsels Palash Tiwari and his co-counsel Prasoon Agrawal, quoted the objectives from National Telecom Policy which said, "Provide affordable and reliable broadband on demand by the year 2015 and to achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand."
Arguing that internet is largely recognized as a general purpose technology and broadband is regarded as a basic infrastructure, the petitioner said many even consider internet as a 'fundamental human right' and some countries have started to put in place legislation stipulated that the access to the internet is a human right for their citizens.
Citing various recommendations of TRAI, the petitioner said the regulatory authority on May 24 this year has recommended that the current definition of broadband in the country be reviewed and minimum download speed be increased to 2 Mbps. The PIL also mentioned that a 'fair usage policy' has been adopted and implemented by all internet service providers which allows them to throttle the internet speed after certain limit and drag it down to minimum 512 Kbps.
Quoting report of an international organisation on 'Freedom on the net', the PIL pointed out, "The minimum speed required to qualify as broadband in India was raised to 512Kbps in 2012. However, this is one of the lowest average of broadband speeds in Asia and remains below the global average speed of 5 Mbps". After much delay, the DoT issued a notification in 2015 through which through which the speed of 256 Kbps was increased to 512Kbps.
Arguing that slow broadband speed is a major roadblock when e-commerce and other initiatives have become common, the petitioner said such a minimum slow speed of 512 Kbps is proving detrimental as people nowdays have started using different platforms on different operating systems which has led to many data consuming applications.
The petitioner prayed to the court to summon all records in relation to the efforts in implementing National Telecom Policy 2012 and upgrading speed from 512 Kbps to 2 Mbps and direct the ministry of telecommunications to implement the policy at the same price at which the current minimize broadband speed is provided[/font][/font][/size]
[font=proxima-semibold, proxima-extrabold1, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=medium][font=proxima-regular1,]http://m.timesofindia.com/city/raipur/Broadband-speed-revision-DoT-TRAI-get-HC-notice/articleshow/54207740.cms[/font][/font][/size]
