Jio seeks Trai review of net neutrality norms

Looks at offering differentiated services for users

- RISHI RAJ

RELIANCE JIO HAS urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to review net neutrality rules so that consumers can benefit from the technological innovations which can be enabled by 5G standalone (SA) technology.

Basically,whatJio has pitched for is rolling out differentiated tariff products based on 5G network slicing technology for specific use cases like guaranteed upload speeds or low-latency gaming experiences.

The current net neutrality policymandates thatallinternet traffic be treated equally. This principle prohibits telecom operators from blocking, throttling or giving preferential treatment to any content or applications, ensuring a level playing field for all internet users. The policy came into effect in 2016 when initiatives like Facebook’s Free Basics and Airtel Zero were stopped as they were seen not to be in syne with the principles of net neutrality. However, the introduction of 5G SA now brings with it the capability called networkslicing.This technologyallows operators to create multiple virtual networks on the same physical infrastructure, each tailored tomeet the distinct requirements of different customersegments or applications. For instance, one slice can be optimised forultra-reliable low-latency communications serving critical applications, while another can deliver high bandwidth forvideo streaming.