A parliamentary committee has sought responses from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the impact of 5G network slicing services, asking them to review how such offerings have been handled in Singapore, the United Kingdom and several other countries.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology noted that priority postpaid plans offered by certain telecom operators could compromise net neutrality for crores of prepaid mobile users. The committee asked DoT and TRAI to submit their responses within 25 days, when the panel is scheduled to meet again.
Committee members were also of the view that major digital and social media platforms, including Meta, X, Google and Amazon, should be called upon to state their position on net neutrality and preferential treatment for certain categories of customers.
A committee member noted after the meeting that while postpaid subscribers account for only around 10 per cent of mobile users in India, the remaining 90 per cent are on prepaid services, underscoring the scale of potential impact.
The meeting had been convened to review quality of service standards and consumer protection in the telecom sector, with a particular focus on net neutrality.
