What’s the fuss about Airtel Zero?

New Delhi: The Internet has become so much a part of the lives of most Indians that it is easy to imagine that it will always remain the free and open medium it is now. We’d like to believe it will remain a place where you can always access any lawful content you want, and where the folks delivering that content can’t play favorites because they disagree with the message being delivered or want to charge more money for faster delivery.

But there are no such guarantees.

If the government doesn’t act soon, this open internet — and the “network neutrality” principles that sustain it — could be a thing of the past. Profits and corporate disfavor of controversial viewpoints or competing services could change both what you can see on the Internet and the quality of your connection. And the need to monitor what you do online in order to play favorites means even more consumer privacy invasions piled on top of the government’s prying eyes.

The political class jumped into the burning issue of net neutrality with Parliamentarians Tathagata Satpathy and Rajeev Chandrasekhar saying that any move to allow telecom operators to charge subscribers separately for using some apps would restrict people’s access to Internet and go against the Prime Minister’s vision of Digital India.

Net neutrality is the practice of treating all OTT (Over the Top) and Telecom Service Providers equally. In essence, this means that OTT services such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Viber, Skype and YouTube can continue to generate revenue using the infrastructure established by Telecom Service Providers such as Airtel and Vodafone. Following active lobbying by telecom biggies such as Bharti Airtel, TRAI is expected to release a set of regulations protecting the interests of such firms.

This broadly translates into differential pricing based on content consumption for end consumers of data packages.

The fuss about Airtel Zero

It’s only been a couple of days since the launch of Airtel Zero, an innovative and open marketing platform that will allow customers to access mobile applications ‘free of cost’, and people are seeing a big and somewhat unrelated debate on net neutrality with regards to the product.

It is pertinent that the record is set straight so we highlight some key facts relating to Airtel Zero and the benefits it brings to customers and the industry alike.

First and most important point: Airtel Zero is “free” for all our consumers and open to all marketers. Yes, open to all – big or small.  

In fact, since Airtel Zero was launched on April 6, over 150 start-ups – with majority being small start-ups – have extended support to the initiative and said they will have an ‘equal opportunity’ to run with the big boys. On an average, Airtel Zero will help reduce their marketing costs by almost three quarters.

The concept of Airtel Zero:

Myth

The product concept amounts to preferential access

Reality

Not at all. Airtel Zero provides universal access and is free for all our customers. Customers have the choice to decide whether they want to come there or not.

Myth

Large companies with big budgets will be favoured and smaller start-ups will lose out

Reality

NO. On the contrary we have had lots of ‘small’ start-ups calling us and congratulating us for building this platform, which offers them a great opportunity to market their products at very low costs. Over 150 companies are already in touch with us and want to sign up. 

Myth

‘Smaller’ Start-ups will not be able to afford to pay for the data charges

Reality

Why not? Today, when a consumer downloads a new app and uses it for a day, the total amount of data consumed is roughly about 20-30 MB. Assuming a price of INR 1/MB of free data, this will translate to INR 20 for the start-up.Compared to this, the average cost of marketing digitally through large media/ internet companies is about INR 50 to 300 per download.So, this platform will actually make it cheaper for small companies to gain distribution as well as visibility.

Myth

Telecom companies will charge other companies for data used by customers. This is a way of making money.

Reality

Telecom companies have been working with businesses for decades to offer ‘Toll-Free’ voice services, wherein, a business pays to a customer to call in. Airtel Zero is the same concept.

Myth

Airtel Zero is against Net Neutrality and gives advantage to those who can pay for data.

Reality

As a concept Airtel Zero has nothing to do with Net Neutrality. It is free for each and every customer and offers the same speed to all. It charges the same amount to each company for data without any discrimination.  

Myth

Speed to access the apps that are not on Airtel Zero will be throttled

Reality

Completely incorrect. There is no difference in speed to access various apps, whether they are on Airtel Zero or not.

While today, some mobile devices can store 50 or more apps, others can store five and some can’t even do so. The question thus arises whether Net Neutrality will imply that all devices must be standardised and offered at the same price to make the net neutral?

There are multiple mobile technologies – 2G, 3G, 4G – to access internet. Should all speed and pricing be the same in the garb of Net Neutrality?

Some customers pay cheaper data rates based on volume purchased. Does Net Neutrality imply that everyone must pay the same rate irrespective of usage? 

In the end, the debate over the past few days has brought out one thing clearly – a large number of people are still not clear on what Net Neutrality is all about.

Airtel Zero may still be misunderstood as an idea and a concept but it will offer something that will help drive internet adoption through free usage (and companies and app developers being an equal partner in the process).

It will also drive innovation in the internet and mobile app space by providing a cost-effective and non-discriminatory platform, in particular, to smaller companies.

Maybe, this could truly drive ‘Make in India, For India’.