Hotstar has supported strong Net Neutrality rules in a filing to India's telecom regulator, TRAI. It has recommended "bright-line" rules that clearly prohibit discriminatory behaviour like blocking and slowing down some sites and services. The company also argued for a very narrow list of exceptions to Net Neutrality regulations, with specific conditions to be fulfilled for exemption from rules to be allowed. "[E]dge users of the Internet have a right to be able to access all end-points of the Internet, and this includes any and all content, applications and services that may be available," the filing said. This filing was in response to TRAI's most recent consultation paper on Net Neutrality. You can read MediaNama's coverage of this consultation and the responses to it here. Internet of Things should be regulated Although many Internet providers' filings had significant disagreements, they all largely agreed that the Internet of Things (IoT) and "specialized services" like those used by enterprise clients should not be regulated by Net Neutrality rules -- only ACT Broadband suggested that Net Neutrality rules should apply to IoT. Hotstar argued against IoT being exempted from Net Neutrality, reasoning that it "is a fairly new concept and it should not be excluded from the purview of Net Neutrality." It added, "It is a fast-developing technology with a variety of use-cases." Pointing out that the IoT ecosystem is also vulnerable to security threats, Hotstar said that excluding it from regulatory purview may "have unintended consequences". "In the absence of Net Neutrality, IoT providers will be…
