When Airtel announced its Airtel Zero plan it became the reason for a massive online protest. As it was against net neutrality and seeing that, Flipkart also announced that it is cancelling its deal with Airtel. Now the company has issued a new statement in which it has stated that it supports net neutrality, but ‘Airtel Zero’ has been ‘misunderstood.’
Airtel says that Airtel Zero will work similar to 1-800 toll free voice service. The company notes that it will not discriminate companies. But it still fails to reveal how much it is charging these brands to let its users use their app free of cost. Which creates a new problem for small startups.
Airtel fully supports the concept of Net Neutrality. There have been some misconceptions about our toll free data platform – Airtel Zero. It is a not a tariff proposition but is an open marketing platform that
1. Allows any application or content provider to offer their service on a toll free basis to their customers who are on our network.
2. Such customers whether on a data pack or not will therefore be able to access these toll free services free of charge.
3. No site whether on the toll free platform or not under any circumstances is blocked, throttled or provided any form of preferential access.
4. The toll free platform is open to all content providers on a completely non discriminatory basis and operates on the same principle as 1-800 toll free voice services.
The statement made by Flipkart regarding their decision not to offer toll free data service to their customers is consistent with our stand that Airtel Zero is not a tariff proposition. It is merely an open platform for content providers to provide toll free data services. The platform remains open to all companies who want to offer these toll free data services to their customers on a completely non discriminatory basis.