Well everyone in India is going Gung-Ho about Net neutrality. Since the advent of Airtel Zero , My FB, Twitter and blogs are all talking about it. Start-Up groups are the major people raising the issue.
In the midst of all these Flipkart is the sufferer for no genuine reason of theirs.
Take "net neutrality." Basically, this is the broad term for policy and regulation that prevents service providers from favoring some services and applications over others. Net Neutrality is still in a very nascent stage and even in US FCC is still tinkering with it.
Coming Back to the Indian Scenario, there is a huge furor going on with the Airtel Zero. Now let’s Understand what it is:-
'Airtel Zero' is an open marketing platform that will allow customers to access mobile applications at zero data charges.
'Airtel Zero' will allow everyone from big marketers to small-time application developers to make parts or their entire mobile app free for customers - thus reviving interest of dormant customers, attracting new potential users and increasing retention. In turn they will pay for the Data usage charges incurred by customer.
How does it connect with net- neutrality? Don’t we have this system already in place for customer support . What are toll-free numbers? They are the same. You call and the company Pays. Similarly you use flip kart and they Pay your Data charge. Is it violating anything. No. Are they providing any preferential services in terms of speed- No (at least till now) .
Another thing doing rounds is OTT Charges. Is it announced? I haven’t heard so. TRAI has called a discussion to understand how we can move forward. There are many developed countries where this has been active since a long time .
Let’s look at the telecom’s point of view:-
Our Infrastructure is still not developed. Our Internet Speeds are among the slowest in the world. If there is no Investment in this sector then think of the situation. The investments in upgrading systems are very heavy. No company will invest in a losing cause.
The carrier gets revenue by charging customers for talk-time. Additionally, it sells 2G and 3G services. Carriers have been primarily geared towards selling talk-time. Selling internet services was secondary. They have been slow to react to the potential of third-party internet services. Consumers are replacing traditional texting with Whats App or Viber and traditional network calling with apps such as Skype. There is a very real danger that, in five years, carriers may earn no money from texting and calling.
Carriers argue that internet penetration in India, unlike developed Western nations, is poor. Huge investments need to be made in infrastructure. The revenues from charging the customer for data will not justify making that investment. There is some merit in that argument.
This is still an Open field . I m no Expert but I as a consumer or a start-up don’t think Airtel Zero has done anything Wrong.
Yes OTT like VoiP Call charging is a discrimination but the context if looked into makes it reasonable.
