Telecom Operators Reject Net Neutrality

It seems that the net neutrality concept which is becoming a new hit in the U.S is not in line with what the cellular operators in Indonesia crave for. This isn’t surprising actually, particularly considering that Indonesia is a mobile first country in which internet usage is something fundamental among the citizens. Thus, the operators demand for real money out of the usage of their internet services rather than giving them for free (or being limited by certain regulation).

As cited from Indo Telko, the Association of Indonesian Telco’s Head and Indosat’s CEO Alexander Rusli stated, “We have proposed the Over The Top (OTT) business model to the regulators. The main point of the proposal is our faith that network is owned by operators, so if you want to use it then give us equal benefit. We are against the net neutrality concept.”

Briefly speaking, the net neutrality concept was first coined by a Columbia University’s Professor of Law Tim Wu in his paper in 2003. The concept suggests that internet providers (including cellular operators and the government) must regard each and every internet data as equal, thus the implementation of tariff is highlty prohibited, no matter how many users, websites, apps, tools, content, or communication model being used.

The effect of this concept towards the internet consumption in Indonesia was once excellently described by Ferdinand Zebua. He argued that it is really complicated, since it involves the investment made by the internet providers and consumers’ interest. In other words, the total investment spent won’t be covered if the providers only rely on their service tariff. Now mind you if the tariff is even made much lower due to the implementation of the concept.

To solve this problem, some of them were finally forced to insert intrusive ads into their services, even though there are still debates between a number of digital companies association and telcos (XL and Telkomsel). The government? Well, they have yet made any significant action on this matter.