Do Airtel Zero and Internet.org Violate Net Neutrality? Yes, They Do!

Airtel trying to charge consumers more for VOIP data services was the first attempt to kill net neutrality in India. They tried to hold their ground, but because of the social media backlash, they have rolled it back.

Now Airtel is back again with another attack on net neutrality. This time it is under the disguise of “free”.

I should give credit to Airtel. Their marketing minds worked quite hard to come up with the Zero plan.

Humans have a deep relationship with the word “free” and they know that our emotions will cloud our judgements.

Their choice of words and their lines of defence was so carefully chosen that it even got some great minds to agree that Airtel Zero is not violating net neutrality.

Airtel Zero is the biggest BS in the history of Internet in India.

Let me show you how.

Do Airtel Zero and Internet.org Violate Net Neutrality?

The simple answer is Yes, they do. But how?

First, we will clear the air with a technical definition.

By the basic definition:

Net Neutrality means that all data on the internet should be treated equally.

In other words, you do not discriminate data based on where they come from and to whom it goes.

This is much like racial equality and gender equality. We give equal opportunity to everyone and treat everyone with the same respect because all are humans. Just humans.

Similarly, a unit of data is just a unit of data. A byte is a byte. A KB is a KB. An MB is an MB. A packet of data should not be treated differently because it has influential parents. (Like Flipkart).

Airtel Zero works like this: Flipkart and a few other companies can transmit data on telcos' lines where the consumer doesn’t pay for the data, but Flipkart pays for it.

This is done by deep packet inspection by the telcos. The telcos are going to use technology to monitor the data going through the lines and treat the data differently because it comes from a specific source.

In this case, an MB from Flipkart is paid for by Flipkart and not charged to the consumer.

You are looking into the data and treating it differently because the data is from Flipkart. This is data discrimination in plain English and this is a clear violation of net neutrality, period.

The whole problem of Net Neutrality can be solved by passing one simple law. DO NOT DISCRIMINATE DATA. TREAT ALL BYTES OF DATA EQUALLY.

We just need this simple law: One should not discriminate data through deep packet inspection.

By technical definition, we have proved that Airtel Zero and Internet.org project are violating net neutrality.

Case closed.

But that’s not enough, right?

We need to go deeper. Because there are still certain people (who have been intelligently conned and confused by Airtel and Flipkart) who believe that Airtel Zero is good. And Airtel is having good intentions.

Does Airtel have good intentions?

Before we get into Airtel Zero. Let’s first look at their intentions which have been made clear by their past actions.

Airtel and other telcos in India have been dreaming of an insanely profitable future where they will be making 100x of the income they are making today. That has been put into threat by technology disruption.

They are losing money on SMS and will lose more money on voice because VOIP apps are innovating at a break-neck speed and eventually the only service that the telcos would need to provide is data.

They are not happy with that. They want more. (That's just plain greed).

Eventually the only service that the telcos would need to provide is data. They are not happy with that. They want to control data access to the consumers and charge the hell out of it!

They want to continue confusing people with a gazillion different types of voice and sms packs so that consumers eventually pay more.

When I go to PayTM.com and try to recharge my Airtel prepaid phone number, I see nearly 100 ‘special recharge’ packs. Seriously, who needs it?

Nearly 100 ‘special recharge’ packs!!!

Why can’t be there a flat pricing per minute for voice and a flat charge for SMS. Why can’t there be a law for voice neutrality?

Life would be much easier with such pricing. But telcos want to continue making life difficult for us so that they can make more money.

Telcos want to continue making life difficult for us so that they can make more money.

Their ‘packs’ are designed in such a way that the overall cost of using your phone looks cheap but in the end you pay up a lot more.

Because you are going to forget to renew your pack (and its your mistake) or not use their plan fully (again your mistake) and the telcos are laughing their way to the bank!

These are not recharge packs in front of you. They are packs of Wolves sent by telcos to eat your wallet away.

Airtel or Reliance have no intention to improve India and contribute to the innovation. They are ‘for profit’ companies and want to skin us as much as possible, this fact is out in the broad daylight.

They are ‘for profit’ companies and want to skin us as much as possible. Don't let them fool you that they care!

We could be led to believe that Airtel Zero is for the benefit of India - IF Airtel had proposed Zero plan first.

But Airtel Zero did not come first.

What airtel tried to do first was: Charge more for VOIP. Then they rolled back because of social media backlash.

Isn’t it a very clear confirmation that they are threatened and they are here just to make money and don't care about small business or innovation? Now with Airtel Zero they are trying to re-brand themselves as the good guys.

They tried to charge more for VOIP and failed. They lost consumer trust. They are still greedy and with Airtel Zero they are trying to re-brand themselves as the good guys.

But let me explain you the EVIL behind Airtel zero and how it is NOT good for INDIA.

While I continue to make people understand about the evil behind Airtel Zero, Airtel continues to make vague statements which are blatant lies.

“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 ( source)

If they believe in a neutral internet so much, why did they try to charge higher for VOIP packs in the first place?

“We believe that this platform is consistent with India’s digital inclusion agenda and also contributes to government’s ‘Make in India’ vision,” --- Bharti Airtel (India) Director (Consumer Business) Srini Gopalan. ( source)

Such statements are just BS. No one wants to hear what Airtel believes in. These are just for fire-fighting the present backlash. They are trying to douse a forest fire with a pocket water gun!

Let’s stick to the age old fact: ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER.

How Airtel Zero and similar ‘Zero’ plans are Going to Work Out:

Airtel says that the cost of reaching a customer through Airtel Zero is 1/3rd of the cost from other channels. This argument is extremely flawed. May be the numbers work out well for Flipkart, but it is not usually the case.

• Companies can reach customers easily ONLY in the beginning. When 100 companies sign up for Airtel Zero, they may have the first mover advantage. But the number will become 1,000 and then 10,000. What if your app is 1/10,000 inside Airtel Zero? The cost is going to be much higher than marketing it in the open market.
• Many apps do not need marketing to reach customers. When Whatsapp was launched, it needed no marketing. It was so disruptive that every guy with a smart phone started using it. If Airtel Zero had existed before and they had Hike messenger for free in it, Whatsapp could never have become what it is today.
• Zomato CEO recently tweeted: "Couldn't have built Zomato if we had a competitor on something like Airtel Zero." Isn't it obvious that Zero like plans are going to create a non-level playing field and stifle innovation?
• To cover the cost of paying for staying in Airtel Zero, the companies are going to raise the prices or display more ads on their 'free' apps on a 'free internet plan'.

A 17 year old boy with an old & used laptop bought for 20k INR and a shabby so called 2 MBPS connection cannot make an app like Flappy Bird and seamlessly reach 270+ million internet users in India. Because a crappier game developed by a 'gaming company' would already exist on the 'Zero' platform and would have an unfair advantage over the 17 year old boy.

Airtel Zero & other 'FREE' plans are Bad, Bad, Bad. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Anyone trying to tell you that "Free internet is good" is either trying to con you or have been already conned by the telcos.

Airtel and the telcos will start with Free and then increase prices so much for the businesses that only the businesses with deep pockets are able to sustain.

If we allow telcos to go ahead with such clever disguises of violating net-neutrality, tomorrow we may have something like: Airtel 0.5 or Airtel 50/50 where the data charges of accessing certain apps are 50% of the normal cost. Now the telcos get to charge the businesses as well as the consumers.

Airtel doesn't care whether they make money from the users or from the companies. They just want to make more money. Flipkart doesn't care if they are spending a bit more to reach the last mile of customers, because their pockets are so deep.

Net-Neutrality is just too important to let telcos tamper with it. And they don't have an impeccable record of wanting to serve the nation either.

Though there is a slight chance that 'Free' internet plans could help certain sections of people and businesses in India, allowing them to violate internet neutrality it is a slippery path to go down in.

The telcos will take the permission for granted and screw it up - and then there will be no hope left.

What Next?

• Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Share this article as much as you can.
• Go to SaveTheInternet.in and do your part of the act.
• Tweet the hell out of this issue with hash tags #SaveTheInternet #NetNeutrality and #NetNeutralityIndia for the next several weeks.
• Get ready to take it to the streets if TRAI and Telcos decide to screw Indian internet users.

I thank AIB, Bollywood, Zomato CEO, Amazon, Reddit India, Mahesh Murthy, Medianama, Economic Times and everyone else for taking part in this fight for Internet Neutrality in India.

About the Author

Deepak Kanakaraju is a digital marketing author, speaker and consultant from Bangalore, India. He blogs about digital marketing at DigitalDeepak.com. Deepak also takes care of digital marketing at Instamojo.com as Marketing Manager.

Twitter: @digitaldpak