Airtel’s Priority Service To Postpaid Users On Govt Radar Over Net Neutrality Concerns

Airtel’s latest plan to offer superior service to postpaid users has come under the radar of the government and the telecom regulator.

The Centre and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India are examining Airtel’s recently announced priority postpaid service, which offers a superior network experience to postpaid users, according to a report by The Economic Times.

The government and the telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, are evaluating whether the service conflicts with net neutrality norms.

The government wants to ensure that prepaid users do not face any deterioration in service quality due to the priority given to postpaid users.

Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has held meetings with officials to discuss the service, the report said.

TRAI is evaluating the service in detail and may also ask the company to furnish technical details if needed.

Airtel’s priority service is based on the method of network slicing, in which a section of the network is allocated to postpaid consumers.

Airtel may be asked by the regulator to explain the functioning of the slicing technology to better understand the impact of the service on prepaid users.

India currently does not have specific rules to regulate network slicing by telecom operators. In September 2020, TRAI had recommended certain traffic management practices (TMPs) for telecom networks that could be undertaken within net neutrality norms.

However, the Department of Telecommunications has not notified the recommendations yet.

Adoption of the TMPs could have provided clarity around traffic management, including network slicing, the report said.

Airtel launched the priority service on Tuesday in a bid to convert prepaid users into postpaid users, a cohort that currently accounts for about 7.5 percent of the company’s 373 million mobile users in the country.

With this service, Airtel is looking to improve its average revenue per user, as postpaid customers pay higher charges than prepaid users.