Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is the principle that a network operator should transmit all lawful internet traffic without discrimination based on its source, destination, content, application or the price paid by the sender, so that a user's experience of any lawful service is determined by the service itself rather than by commercial arrangements between the operator and content providers. Its core prohibitions typically cover blocking of lawful content, throttling or deliberately slowing specific traffic, and paid prioritisation, in which a provider grants faster or better access in exchange for payment. India's net neutrality framework was given legal effect through amendments to the Unified Licence following the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's 2017 recommendations, accepted by the Department of Telecommunications in 2018, which prohibit any service provider from entering into an arrangement resulting in discriminatory treatment of content, including blocking, degrading, slowing down or granting preferential speeds or treatment to any content. This built on the 2016 Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, which had already barred differential pricing based on content, ending 'zero-rating' arrangements that offered free or discounted data for specific applications. India's framework includes a 'specialised services' carve-out, permitting network optimisation for specific applications, such as guaranteed-latency services for telemedicine or industrial automation, where the specialised service is not usable as a substitute for general internet access and its provision does not degrade the quality of general internet access. This carve-out has become newly significant with the emergence of 5G network slicing, which by design creates differentiated traffic classes, requiring regulators to actively police the boundary between legitimate specialised services and disguised discrimination against general internet traffic.

• 1 Net neutrality: no blocking, throttling, or paid prioritisation of lawful internet traffic based on source, destination, content or payment.
• 2 Given legal effect in India through Unified Licence amendments following TRAI's 2017 recommendations, accepted by DoT in 2018.
• 3 Built on the 2016 Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, which ended content-based zero-rating.
• 4 Includes a 'specialised services' carve-out for optimisation that does not substitute for or degrade general internet access.
• 5 5G network slicing creates new tension with net neutrality, since slicing is inherently differential traffic treatment by design.
• 6 TRAI's 2026 5G slicing consultation paper (21-day advance notification of new slices) functions as an enforcement mechanism for the net neutrality boundary.
• 7 India's net neutrality regime is considered among the stricter frameworks internationally compared to jurisdictions that have relaxed similar rules.

TRAI's 2026 proposal requiring 21 days' advance notification before an operator launches a new 5G network slice was framed as the practical mechanism for enforcing net neutrality's specialised-services carve-out in a slicing environment.