Airtel defends data pricing after facing criticism over net neutrality
Stating that the Internet is neutral and will continue to be so, a senior official from Bharti Airtel on Friday asserted that an operator has a right to maximise its revenue from customers.
“The Internet, I believe, was neutral, is neutral and will be neutral. There is absolutely no agenda, no direction, no industry force coming in way,”Bharti Airtel chief for strategy Shyam Mardikar said at an industry conference in Mumbai.
“But what we are confusing here is the concept of service neutrality to net neutrality,” he added in the comments which come amidst a growing debate over net neutrality, wherein a section of the society has been blaming telcos like Airtel, for violating rule of neutrality through attempts to charge for voice over Internet calls and also the recent move incentivising usage of only certain applications.
Mardikar cited the case of voice, saying, it has “nothing to do with the Internet” and “bypassing” regulations is not going to work as the law of the land, under which the telcos operate, is “sacrosanct”.
“We believe that in the guise of net neutrality if we’re starting things that suggest neutrality, then next step would be to abolish licensing regime, and get on a free for all,” he said, adding in such a case, there is no need for companies to pay high premia for spectrum.
In a veiled reference to the criticism on tie-up with application-makers, Mardikar suggested that we should let the market forces decide.
Charges for using a service is an issue which the company and the customer has to figure out, he said, pointing out that the average revenue per user are one of the lowest in the country and the companies need to figure out how to increase the same.
via NorthEast Calling http://ift.tt/1yk86YI
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