Deconstructing Airtel Zero
Airtel CEO, Gopal Vittal's email to all of Airtel customers was the summation of all the arguments Airtel put forth in favour of their Airtel Zero platform. Therefore, deconstructing this email serves as a fitting analysis of Airtel Zero.
The email goes as follows.
Dear Customer
Over the last few days you may have seen a lot of conversation on our toll free platform Airtel zero. It has been painted as a move that violates net neutrality and we have been very concerned at the incorrect information that has been carried by some quarters in the media as well as in social media. I wanted to take this opportunity to clear the air and reiterate that we are completely committed to net neutrality. Let me clarify.
Our vision is to have every Indian on the internet. There are millions of Indians who think that the internet is expensive and do not know what it can do for them. We believe that every Indian has the right to be on the internet. We know that if we allow them to experience the joys of the internet they will join the digital revolution.
Airtel zero is a technology platform that connects application providers to their customers for free. The platform allows any content or application provider to enroll on it so that their customers can visit these sites for free. Instead of charging customers we charge the providers who choose to get on to the platform.
Our platform is open to all application developers, content providers and internet sites on an equal basis. The same rate card is offered to all these providers on a totally non discriminatory basis.
There is no difference between this and toll free voice such as 1-800. When a company selling an insurance product enrols into the toll free voice platform, customers who call the number are not charged but when they call a normal number they are charged. Calls are not blocked or given preferential treatment else our whole business would be jeopardized. Toll free voice helps the business owner engage with their customer. At the same time it provides the customer the benefit of reaching the business for free. Toll free voice is not a product or a tariff plan, it is merely a technology platform. We are simply taking the same concept of toll free voice to the world of data. As a result it is for the application developer and their customer to decide how data charges will be paid for. If the application developer is on the platform they pay for the data and their customer does not. If the developer is not on the platform the customer pays for data as they do now. Companies are free to choose whether they want to be on the platform or not. This does not change access to the content in any way whatsoever. Customers are free to choose which web site they want to visit, whether it is toll free or not. If they visit a toll free site they are not charged for data. If they visit any other site normal data charges apply.
Finally every web site, content or application will always be given the same treatment on our network whether they are on the toll free platform or not. As a company we do not ever block, throttle or provide any differential speeds to any web site. We have never done it and will never do it. We believe customers are the reason we are in business. As a result we will always do what is right for our customers.
There has been a deliberate effort by some quarters to confuse people that we will offer differential speeds or differential access for different sites. This is untrue. After all we earn revenues from data. If there are more customers who are on the Internet the better it is for our business. Our revenues are not dependent on which sites they visit because we charge on the basis of consumption of mega bytes not which site they visited.
In sum our platform is a technology platform and is open to all application developers and their customers. Our platform only provides a choice of how the data that is consumed is paid for by any of the two - the application provider or their customer. Whether any application provider enrolls on the platform or not is entirely their choice. All we have is a technology. We do not have a product or tariff plan that we have launched. We simply have a platform. And every application developer and their customer is free to choose in an entirely neutral way what they want to do.
In conclusion, we stand fully committed to net neutrality to ensure the goals of the Prime Minister`s vision of digital India are met.
Regards,
Gopal Vittal
MD & CEO
Bharti Airtel Ltd.
India & South Asia
First of all, Internet is not a right, it is a utility — a utility that everyone must have access to in my opinion. Individuals and organizations are free to believe that it is a right but those who believe so must truly be committed to that belief not just through words, but through actions as well. Airtel zero gives users access to a part of Internet: a collection of apps and services, not the entire Internet. If they truly wanted to bring every single Indian on the Internet, just offer freemium plans: say 300 MB of free internet to consumers without internet, and they will truly be bringing some Indians on to Internet. Why would you make a platform to bring every Indian on the Internet available to existing Internet users as well? I find no sense.
Freemium plan is a more apt move in accordance to their vision. As he mentioned, if they allow the users to experience the 'joys of internet' with a freemium plan, they will join the digital revolution. So freemium plans will also benefit Airtel monetarily as free plans end and consumers start paying.
The worrying part is how an app or service enters Airtel's selected part of the Internet. By payment! And that changes the playing field in an unfair way. Startups or small businesses with less capital will not be able to join Airtel zero. What Airtel zero is doing is monetizing access and those with big pockets can survive while shallow pockets cannot. This is economically bad.
I've always believed that the value proposition matters. The value consumers get matters. But such models that offer a small part of the Internet free are bad for consumers too. With Zero, all consumers are getting is a select few products. There is no true consumer value here because great products and services may not be available to consumer simply because their manufacturers do not have enough money to join Zero. Moreover what is to say that Airtel will not increase the joining fee simply because there are big technology corporations already partnered with them!
It also violates equal opportunity from consumers' end. They do not have equal access to products and services made by rich companies and budget companies. That is unfair because the concept of net neutrality embodies this equality of opportunity, as per its definition:
Network neutrality, most commonly called net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, and not charge users different rates based on content, website, platform, application, type of equipment, source address, destination address, or method of communication.
So, it will be far better to say that Airtel zero violates net neutrality, which is the reason why there is so much talk anchored on net neutrality and Airtel zero. As accused in the email, Airtel zero is not painted to violate net neutrality, it actually does violate net neutrality.
Airtel finally decided not to proceed with Airtel Zero, and this is commendable of them.