Criticism against Zero grows; Airtel defends its plan
Hyderabad: Succumbing under the pressure from netizens, India’s largest ecommerce firm Flipkart has walked out of negotiations with Bharti Airtel on joining the latter’s Airtel Zero.
The Bengaluru-based firm’s decision comes after over several thousands of its users threatened to delete Flipkart’s app or downgrade to punish the etailer for joining the Airtel’s platform, which is seen as sabotaging equal internet access for all.
The pressure on the government and telecom regulator has also increased with the netizens writing more than three lakh petitions to Trai against the “discriminatory services” from the telecom and Internet firms and asked them to save the Internet.
Net neutrality calls for equal treatment to all Internet traffic while any priority given to an application or company on payment basis is seen as violating the concept.
Launched last week, Airtel Zero is an open-marketing platform that allows customers to access certain mob-ile applications for free with charges being borne by app makers.
In a statement, Airtel defended its open platform and said that it fully supports the concept of Net Neutrality.
Airtel said “it is a not a tariff proposition but is an open marketing platform that allows any app or content provider to offer their service on a toll free basis to their customers who are on our network.”
The telecom company further said that Airtel Zero platform on the same principle as 1-800 toll free voice services.
Advocates of free Internet and startup entrepreneurs feel that apps on the free-to-access platform will attract more users compared to those for which the user have to pay data charges. This, they say, puts apps that are outside the open platform like Airtel Zero at a considerable disadvantage.
Reacting to the criticism, telecom minister said “Internet doesn't belong to any one country, society or to a company.”
On Twitter and other internet platforms, support for keeping Internet free continued to pour in from politicians, businessmen, film actors and others.
