NEW DELHI, July 12 (Xinhua) -- India's Telecom Commission (TC) has approved net neutrality norms that bars service providers from discriminating against internet content and services by blocking, throttling or granting them higher speed access, officials said Thursday.
Net neutrality means service providers have to treat all traffic equally on internet, and keep the charges same on content.
The recommendations explicitly forbid operators from throttling or increasing data speeds for any online service and calls for all content be treated the same without discrimination.
"Any deviations and violations of the rules of net neutrality -- which come into effect almost immediately -- will be met with stiff penalties," a senior telecom official Aruna Sundarajan told media.
Experts say the decision, intending to ensure open and free internet in India, could be the strongest in the world.
India has 462 million internet users.
