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Bharti Airtel & Net Neutrality: A New Twist in the MNO-OTT Saga

Bharti Airtel & Net Neutrality: A New Twist in the MNO-OTT Saga Image Credit: PCC Mobile Broadband

Bharti Airtel, one of the top carriers in India, made a few headlines this week after the fine print on its service portal said that " All Internet/data packs or plans (through which customer can avail discounted rate) shall only be valid for internet browsing and will exclude VoIP (Both incoming/ Outgoing). VoIP over data connectivity would be charged at standard data rates of 4p / 10 KB (3G service) and 10p / 10 KB (2G service)."

The fine print appeared on Bharti Airtel's 3G plans page and has sparked off controversy relating to net neutrality. Based on the principles of net neutrality, no specific application or IP address can be given a higher or lower priority in terms of connection quality/speed or be charged higher or lower compared to standard connection charges. The idea of net neutrality tries to ensure that data connection does not determine which content people go to or consume. However, net neutrality is becoming a concept that is hard to defend today as it intertwines with digital content marketing which sees leading brands in the digital content space sponsoring connection charges as means to promote visits to their sites/applications and to boost acquisition of new customers. As marketing is part and parcel of the business world and is never disputed for giving an advantage for those enterprises with money to spend on freebies, free trials, coupons, bogof deals and of course, free delivery and installation, it is becoming increasingly challenging for the telecoms industry to say no to the sponsorship of connectivity charges especially on services which collect subscription fees from users. After all, free delivery has always been part of many product offers in the retail market and merchants have always ensured that delivery charges do not influence the purchasing decisions of their customers. Infact, it has always been argued that merchants are able to lower the overall costs of their products and pass the savings to their customers by securing bulk delivery contracts from providers of the delivery service.

Net neutrality becomes even more interesting in the case of network operators. We have the case of merchants forced to carry competing products without the ability to offer favourable delivery charges on their own products. This is exactly what is happeing in the case of Bharti Airtel. Net neutrality is rearing its head again, saying that mobile operators must rise beyond their business agenda to carry the products/services of their competitors without promoting their own services - with discounts for example - which is what Bharti has announced via the fine print on its service portal. If at all, net neutrality will only come into play if Bharti Airtel increases the rates on VoIP data above the standard data rates - which is akin to hypermarkets placing their own brands on the top shelves and relegating third party brands to hidden aisles. And Bharti is charging no more than its standard rates on the VoIP data.

What will be spicing up the entire story is how the likes of Skype, WhatsApp, Line, Viber and other OTTs will respond to the move by Bharti and how this will influence pricing decisions across other operators. For the OTT providers, sponsored data may be one way to address the situation - offering to pay mobile operators the difference between the plan rates and standard rates such that the data charges paid by end customers remain the same for all the content/services consumed on the internet. These next few weeks may set a whole new direction for both sponsored data and net neutrality - we will just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, Bharti has released a statement saying that they will be offering separate VoIP data packs which subscribers can use for making VoIP calls on their network. 

Author

Founder and CEO at The Fast Mode | NFV/MANO/Openstack | Telecoms Service Innovations & Monetization | Speaker, Moderator and Analyst

Prushothma brings more than 22 years of experience in designing and delivering some of the most advanced service innovations in the telecoms industry.

Follow him on Twitter @prushothma, LinkedIn @prushothma

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