Is providing priority service to premium subscribers against rules? Does this practice go against the principle of neutrality?
This is the question that is being debated in the Indian telecom industry at the moment. At the heart of the debate lies the Airtel Priority Postpaid service, launched recently by the leading Indian telecom service provider.
The offering has not just divided users but also rivals and forced action from the regulator as well as the legislature.
Bharti Airtel last week announced the launch of Priority Postpaid service, which claims to deliver more stable and consistent 5G network experience for users. The service uses the network slicing feature to deliver faster and stable mobile internet.
However, as soon as the service was launched, the questions of net neutrality being compromised began to be asked.
The concerns even forced the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology to seek responses from the telecom operators.
Responding to the concerns, Bharti Airtel is said to have defended the Priority Postpaid service launch, stating it is compliant with the net neutrality guidelines.
Reliance Jio, while backing the technology behind the offering, has called for safeguards around its implementation. Vodafone Idea, however, has raised its concerns over the offering, describing it as discriminatory. These responses have been given to the parliamentary panel.
Service providers in their responses are reported to have acknowledged that network slicing is a standard feature under the 5G architecture.
Airtel said in its response that Priority Postpaid is content-neutral and does not offer preferential access to any websites or applications. Airtel denied that the feature degrades prepaid customers’ experience.
Airtel added that its 5G network currently operates at just 38% capacity, of which postpaid users account for only 4% of this usage. This ensures that there is enough spare capacity to provide differentiated experiences without hurting the interests of the broad subscriber base.
Airtel sought to allay any further fears by saying that prepaid customers account for the majority of its subscriber base (92%) and contribute 88% of revenues. Affecting the quality of service to prepaid users goes against the commercial interests of the company, Airtel added.
Jio, meanwhile, said that network slicing as a feature is consistent with net neutrality regulations, but such services may be introduced in consultation with the government while ensuring compliance with the broader regulatory framework. Broad internet access available to retail customers should not be degraded, it added.
VI, on the other hand, described the service as discriminatory in nature.
It may be recalled that Airtel had launched Priority 4G service in 2020 as well but had to withdraw the same following backlash. The Priority 4G service extended to Platinum Postpaid users shared the exact same physical pool of bandwidth, shifting resources from regular users to premium users. This degraded service for non-premium/prepaid users during peak congestion and TRAI eventually blocked it.
The current Priority Postpaid service is, however, different and creates a virtual tunnel (slice) dedicated to postpaid users, completely isolated from prepaid traffic.