Broadband India Forum warns of net neutrality breaches

The Broadband India Forum (BIF) has warned that application-specific network slicing could lead to breaches of net neutrality principles in India. The organization argues that "Quality of Demand" (QoD) for select applications may amount to content discrimination.

BIF stated on Friday to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that offering preferential speeds or access terms to specific applications, such as live streaming and cloud gaming, could create a "fast lane" for these services. This could potentially disadvantage ordinary internet users, especially during times of network congestion.

The forum contends that such arrangements could be seen as paid prioritization, where content providers pay for enhanced service delivery. BIF believes this contradicts the core principles of net neutrality, potentially leaving non-paying platforms with inferior performance.

However, BIF does not oppose network slicing itself, acknowledging its importance for 5G. They emphasize that its deployment must be transparent and non-discriminatory to avoid negatively impacting general internet services. BIF has also called for TRAI to establish a clear definition of "typical speed" to prevent misinterpretation.