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Airtel Defends Toll Free Platform; Claims To Support Net Neutrality

Airtel Defends Toll Free Platform; Claims To Support Net Neutrality

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NEW DELHI — In the eye of the storm over net neutrality, Bharti Airtel today said it will always provide same treatment to every website and application irrespective of whether they are on its toll free platform or not.

Launched earlier this month, Airtel Zero is an open-marketing platform that allows customers to access certain mobile apps for free with charges being borne by the app makers.

The company has drawn flak on social media for violating the concept of net neutrality.

"Over the last few days you may have seen a lot of conversation on Airtel Zero. It has been painted as a move that violates net neutrality and we have been very concerned at the incorrect information that has been carried by some quarters in the media as well as in social media," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said in a letter to its employees.

"I wanted to take this opportunity to clear the air and reiterate that we are completely committed to net neutrality," he added.

Vittal said the platform is open to all app developers, content providers and internet sites on an equal basis and same rate card is offered to all.

"There is no difference between this and toll free voice such as 1-800," he said.

Vittal said every website, content or application will always be given the same treatment on its 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 customers are the reason we are in business," he said.

The head of country's largest telecom operator said there has been a deliberate effort by some quarters to confuse people that it will offer differential speeds or differential access for different sites.

"This is untrue. After all we earn revenue 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 mega bytes not which site they visited," he added.

The debate over net neutrality has gained momentum after Airtel announced the marketing platform. Due to the outrage over social media, e-commerce major Flipkart has withdrawn from Airtel Zero.

Meanwhile, Cleartrip, NDTV and Times Group have logged out from internet.org platform of Facebook, where Reliance Communication is a partner.

Platforms like internet.org and Airtel Zero are being billed as going against the concept of maintaining equal Internet access for all, although they claim to allow users to access a variety of mobile and Internet applications for free.

The critics allege that these services restrict the 'free' access to a select group of websites and apps and therefore sabotage the entire concept of keeping the Internet free.

While a government-appointed panel is looking into the issue of net neutrality, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently had said that the government is committed to maintain 'non-discriminatory' access for all to the internet.

Telecom regulator TRAI last month floated a discussion paper on the issue, while the proponents of 'net neutrality' have already bombarded it with more than 8 lakh petitions.

Emails to TRAI: 798512 (+1049) via http://t.co/YyyiGJr5YQ#SaveTheInternet#NetNeutralityIndia

— Bulletin Babu (@bulletinbabu) April 18, 2015

Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post, "Over the past week in India, there has been a lot written about internet.org and net neutrality" and he wanted to present his position on these issues for everyone to see".

Facebook's internet.org has drawn a lot of flak in the past few days, while same has been the case for Airtel Zero.

Zuckerberg says #NetNeutrality & http://t.co/TH7bMgnfgb can coexist. That's like saying freedom & slavery can coexist.

— Mahesh Murthy (@maheshmurthy) April 16, 2015

.@rsprasad, @facebook claims they consulted govt. on which sites to allow on http://t.co/UG0NUV7vkD. Is it true sir? pic.twitter.com/NI74fWDgUk

— Reddit India (@redditindia) April 17, 2015

I bet, if Internet dot org was plain sponsorship of data to access any site, w/o content restriction, numbers would be way more than 7mn

— Kanchan Kumar (@kanchankumar) April 18, 2015

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" pic.twitter.com/eJm57LfraW

— Rishi Seth (@sethrishi) April 18, 2015

Here's an older example of Airtel offering a "free" bandwidth upgrade *only to YouTube users watching IPL* http://t.co/PYi2KMrF93

— Rohin Dharmakumar (@r0h1n) April 18, 2015

Airtel Zero being "equally open" to developers is like a 5-* restaurant being "equally open". Discrimination implicit in ability to pay.

— Rohin Dharmakumar (@r0h1n) April 18, 2015

Airtel-owned Wynk Music, advertising zero data charges in Jan. Which competitor will stand a chance? pic.twitter.com/Mkb2jwNkoi

— Rohin Dharmakumar (@r0h1n) April 16, 2015

More on the net neutrality debate:

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.