Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO of Bharti Airtel, India and South
Asia, has made an attempt to clear all misconceptions about Airtel Zero. The question is has he succeeded? Don’t know about clearing
out things but he sure has made the public confused.
TOLL FREE CONCEPT
Put in simple terms, he says the concept of toll free voice
communication is being tried on data now. We don’t pay for the registered
websites but we pay for the rest of the websites the same way we do now.
Innovation?
Creativity? I call toll free
numbers when I have issues I want the service providers to cater. But, online
shopping is something I would also do if I am waiting at a bus stop. Does not
quite seem analogous.
GETTING ZERO RATING DEALS DONE
As a start up initiator, seems tedious. Once upon a time, all I needed to do was get one Internet
connection & services were guaranteed. Now I have to invest extra time
& extra money for finalizing deals with ISPs(Internet Service Providers).
Gosh !
SCARCITY OF SPECTRUM & TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
With prioritization, there will be seen an image of pseudo
traffic management. The scenario of scarcity of spectrum as addressed by TRAI
Chairman Rahul Khullar seems to give a notion of a deterioration of quality of
service. With Airtel Zero’s notion of increasing the quality, doesn’t it make
the situation worse?
DISCRIMINATION OF SERVICE
As a user, seems quite okay to me as long as I have no
background knowledge. Now imagine WebsiteX is with Airtel Zero. I buy 2
products from WebsiteX & I don’t even have to pay for data charges. Wao Yea!
But the third product I choose to buy from any WebsiteY & the page does not
load even if I agree to pay data charges for the same. Hell No!
Is using a few
websites for free is actually a bait? Comment down your answers below.
Here is the email’s full text below.
Dear friends,
Over the last few days you may have seen a lot of conversation on our
toll-free platform Airtel Zero. It has been painted as a move that violates net
neutrality and we have been very concerned at the incorrect information being
carried by some quarters in the media as well as in social media. I wanted to
take this opportunity to clear the air and reiterate that we are completely
committed to net neutrality. Allow us to put forth our stand on this issue.
1. Our vision is to have every Indian on the internet. There are
millions of Indians who think that the internet is expensive and don’t know
what it can do for them. We believe that every Indian has the right to be on
the internet. We know that if we allow them to experience the joys of the
internet, they will join the digital revolution.
2. Airtel Zero is a technology platform that connects application
providers to their customers for free. The platform allows any content or
application provider to enroll on it so that their customers can visit these
sites for free. Instead of charging customers we charge the providers who
choose to get on to the platform.
3. Our platform is open to all application developers, content providers
and internet sites on an equal basis. The same rate card is offered to all
these providers on a totally non-discriminatory basis.
4. There is no difference between this and the toll-free voice services
such as 1-800. When a company selling an insurance product enrolls into the toll-free
voice platform, customers who call the number are not charged but when they
call a normal number they are charged. Calls are not blocked or given
preferential treatment else our whole business would be jeopardized.
A toll-free voice service helps the business owners engage with their
customers. At the same time it provides the customers the benefit of reaching
the business for free. Toll-free voice is not a product or a tariff plan – it
is merely a technology platform. We are simply taking the same concept of
toll-free voice to the world of data. As a result, it is for the application
developers and their customers to decide how data charges will be paid for.
If an application developer is on the platform, he pays for the data and
his customers don’t. If the developer is not on the platform, the customers pay
for the data as they do now. Companies are free to choose whether they want to
be on the platform or not. This does not change access to the content in any
way whatsoever. Customers are free to choose which website they want to visit –
whether it is toll-free or not. If they visit a toll-free site they are not
charged for data. If they visit any other site, normal data charges apply.
5. Every website, content or application will always be given the same
treatment on our network whether they are on the toll-free platform or not. As
a company we do not ever block or provide any differential speeds to any
website. We have never done it, and will never do it. We believe our customers
are the reason we are in business. As a result, we will always do what is right
for our customers.
6. Based on the interest evinced by many small companies, we believe
that our platform is especially attractive for them since they will now be able
to get their content and applications to their customers at a fraction of the
cost of other digital marketing alternatives. Data charges when paid for by
companies are almost next to nothing compared to the marketing costs paid by
small start-ups to discover apps.
7. There has been a deliberate effort by some quarters to confuse people
that we will offer differential speeds or differential access for different
sites. This is untrue. After all, we earn revenues from data. If there are more
customers who are on the Internet, the better it is for our business. Our
revenues are not dependent on which sites they visit because we charge on the
basis of consumption of megabytes, not which site they visited.
In sum our platform is a technology platform and is open to all the
application developers and their customers. Our platform only provides a choice
of how the data that is consumed is paid for by any of the two – the
application providers or their customers. Whether any application provider
enrolls on the platform or not is entirely his choice. All we have is a
technology. We don’t have a product or a tariff plan that we have launched. We
simply have a platform. And every application developer and their customer is
free to choose in an entirely neutral way what they want to do.
In conclusion, we stand fully committed to net neutrality to ensure the
goals of the Prime Minister’s vision of digital India are met. Once again, you
are the reason we are in business.
Regards,
Gopal Vittal
MD & CEO (India and South Asia)
Bharti Airtel
