Vodafone is all for net neutrality, calls Airtel Zero as trivial price plan

Joining the internet giants who are all shouting out loud for net neutrality, telecom major Vodafone too cleared its stand on the issue. Sunil Sood, managing director of Vodafone India clarified the internet giants.

In a recent press conference in Delhi, Sood said that the company did not believe in ‘carving’ or ‘blocking’ the Internet. "We're completely for net neutrality. We've seen 148% growth in data usage, thanks to OTT (Over-the-top) players. However, we're also pro net equality. If there's a service similar to ours, the rate should be the same", he said. ‘Similar service’ seemingly refers to OTT VoIP Apps such as Skype, Whatsapp, Viber and Hike among others.

One can't help but ponder over how much OTT voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) call services agitate Indian telcos. There's no doubt that OTT VoIPs like WhatsApp, Skype, Line or Viber allow users to make free calls and have been biting into Telco revenues for quite a while. According to telecom advisory firm Ovum, telecom companies across the world will lose around $386 billion between 2012 and 2018 due to OTT VoIPs.

Most Indian telcos feel they can't earn back what they invest on infrastructure as app makers cash in by just sending data over these networks. Telecom companies make money only out of data usage, not on bandwidth, which is getting cheaper anyway.

Airtel Zero’s launch in April sparked the debate on net neutrality in India. The plan offered free internet access to some websites, while others were payable. Sood clarified Vodafone won’t follow suit. He dismissed Airtel’s zero plan as a “trivial price plan”, which has been deviced as incentive to promote data services in the country. The company is currently waiting for the government's stand on the issue.

Vodafone India currently has around 63.8 million data users, 19.4 million on 3G.