The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) should adopt a ‘flexible approach’ to recognise traffic management and technology-centric innovations like network slicing on 5G, Reliance Jio says in its submission to the consultation on spectrum auction for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT). Network slicing is a technique that allows network operators to create multiple virtualised subnetworks (known as slices) for dedicated purposes.
The company emphasised that globally, the understanding of net neutrality is evolving with technology scenarios, adding that the US’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has repealed net neutrality rules based on market dynamics. Similarly, the UK’s communication regulator, OfCom, has “concluded that new dimensions to NN [net neutrality] can be added in the form of permitting premium quality retail offers”, most zero-rating offers, and traffic management.
These arguments are by no means new. Last year, in response to a consultation on the 5G ecosystem, Jio had argued for light-touch regulations for the 5G ecosystem and that TRAI should address “restrictive net neutrality and data charging rules,” citing OfCom’s review of the net neutrality rules.
Why is Jio arguing in favour of network slicing?
Reliance Jio has a standalone 5G network, which the company has been actively discussing since 2024. A standalone network is a new mobile network architecture that is not dependent on existing 4G infrastructure to facilitate communications. Having a standalone 5G network allows the company to provide network slicing services. In an earnings call earlier this year, the company emphasised that only Jio has been able to provide network slicing because of its standalone 5G network.
“We have dynamic slicing, so the route selection, the way it works, is fairly dynamic and we can do this on a real-time basis, based on where the traffic is coming from, based on user requirements,” the company’s Senior Vice President, Anshuman Thakur, had explained adding that the needs of someone performing critical work may differ from a home broadband connection. He also mentioned that Jio currently does not have differentiated pricing between users, but for specific use cases, but may eventually introduce such plans.
In the submission for the IMT spectrum auction, the company elaborates further on its network slicing efforts, stating that it is receiving proposals to launch tariff products based on network slicing technology under a 5G standalone network.
Does network slicing impact net neutrality?
Net neutrality is a principle that states that all sites on the internet must be equally accessible with no speeding up or slowing down of sites (known as throttling) based on whether or not the website owners are paying telecom companies. In 2024, net neutrality activists had expressed concern about a proposed revival of net neutrality norms in the US, which could…
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