Industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has said that certain classes or types of services in public interest should be allowed differential pricing provided that they obtain mandatory prior approvals and that they are in accordance with the principle of Net Neutrality. "The regulator should have the power to allow differential pricing for certain types/ classes of services that are deemed to be in public interest and based on mandatory prior approvals. Any such programs should abide by the principles of net neutrality and not constrain innovation in any way,” NASSCOM president R Chandrashekhar said in a statement. NASSCOM also said that any differential pricing programs telecom operators and their partners should have explicit directives approval of the regulator. "The onus of proving the larger public good arising out of such proposals should be on the TSP and its partners. Such proposals should be subject to a wider public consultation by the regulator before arriving at a final decision," NASSCOM added. The industry body also proposed establising an independent not-for-profit entity with an independent board which would own and manage proposed differential pricing programs that are deemed to be in the public interest and are philanthropic in nature. TRAI’s consultation papers: Earlier in December, the TRAI issued another consultation paper on net neutrality, asking whether telecom operators should be allowed to charge differently for different websites, focused purely on the price discrimination aspect. This was a follow up to a consultation paper it put out in May this year. On a similar…
