The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has reaffirmed its support to the principle of net neutrality, making a strong pitch for the government's vision of "net equality" that will allow access to the internet for a billion Indians.
COAI has requested all the stakeholders to have an informed and detailed discussion on the subject of net neutrality keeping in mind the requirements of the country and its citizens.
The association has said that we support an open internet and believe that customers should decide what to do online and our job is to enable consumers to benefit from that freedom.
COAI said that its members are fully committed to investing in Government of India's Digital India vision and need a positive environment that promotes the growth of the entire internet ecosystem.
It must be noted that the operators have invested billions of dollars in spectrum fees, network roll-outs and license fees, but the industry still makes negative return on the capital employed.
According to industry estimates, India would need additional capital outlay of INR 300,000- 500,000 crores over the next ten years in new technology, spectrum, towers, equipment, otical fibre etc., to meet Narendra Modi's vision of Digital India, and connect one billion Indians to the internet.
According to COAI, the country has more than 950 million mobile subscribers - the second largest in the world. This massive growth was facilitated by innovation across the ecosystem - in our ever expanding complex networks, infrastructure sharing, outsourcing models, and innovative pricing structures - that permitted telecom operators to offer consumers some of the most affordable and innovative call rates in the world.
The association thinks that we need the same spirit and dedication to connect a billion Indians to the internet. This means innovations across the ecosystem ?more efficient networks, affordable smartphones and more broad ranging applications in areas such as (health, education, governance) and pricing flexibility - that promotes greater digital inclusion.
The main factors to enable this are that the same rules should apply to the same types of services, including IP Voice and Mobile services, COAI said. This is the only way to guarantee digital inclusion and bring about economic and social betterment to the common man.
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