Vodafone India: "We are Pro-Net Neutrality"; Waiting for the Rules

 
Pankaj Doval, reports to The Times of India that "Vodafone, India's second-biggest mobile operator [see chart below for March 2015 data], has refused to follow Bharti Airtel in launching a zero-rating platform [see "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here] , the decision coming at a time when telecom regulator Trai and the Department of Telecom (DoT) are looking into the entire gamut of issues related to net neutrality.

Sunil Sood, [pictured] , CEO, Vodafone India said: "We are waiting for the rules .. Vodafone is a supporter of net neutrality and does not believe in "blocking" or "throttling" the internet .. We are pro-net neutrality... we do not block the internet or direct the internet." 

Asked to comment on the criticism of Airtel Zero plan, he said, "I believe it's a trivial matter. It was just a price plan .. applications offering voice communication facility — such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber — should follow the same regulations as mobile operators"  [see "Indian MNOs to Surcharge VoIP Traffic" - here and "Airtel wont Surcharge VoIP; TRAI: "not in accordance with net neutrality, it was not illegal" - here].

See "Vodafone won’t toe zero-rating plan of Airtel" - here.

Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral

Last week Bharti Airtel announced the "launch of ‘Airtel Zero’ – an open marketing platform that will allow customers to access mobile applications at zero data charges. Akin to the established concept of toll-free voice calling, ‘Airtel Zero’ will allow everyone from big marketers to small-time application developers to make parts or their entire mobile app free for customers – thus reviving interest of dormant customers, attracting new potential users and increasing retention. 

The platform will be a big win for customers as it will allow them to access their favourite mobile applications at no data charges, and also encourage them to try out new applications .. We invite all application developers to register their interest in ‘Airtel Zero’ and see the compelling reach it can deliver to Airtel’s 200 million plus customers across India".

The new service raised Net Neutrality concerns in India. The Hindu reports (see "Net neutrality: Airtel defends data pricing" - here) that Bharti Airtel chief for strategy Shyam Mardikar [pictured] said that "an operator has a right to maximise its revenue from customers .. stating that the Internet is neutral and will continue to be so ..we are confusing here is the concept of service neutrality to net neutrality"

"How will ‘Airtel Zero’ work?

1. Mobile app makers register with ‘Airtel Zero’ to give customers toll-free access to their apps
2. Airtel informs customers about these toll-free apps
3. Customers download and access these apps at zero data charges – and enjoy their favorite online tasks (e.g. entertainment, shopping) for free – even at zero mobile balance"

See "Airtel launches ‘Airtel Zero’: A win-win platform for customers and marketers" - here.

Airtel wont Surcharge VoIP; TRAI: "not in accordance with net neutrality, it was not illegal."

This time it took just few days for an MNO to drop its intentions to surcharge VoIP.

While Airtel said that "current VoIP model is not sustainable" the public reaction, as well as some government actions convinced it to drop the idea.

Reuters reports that "Bharti Airtel Ltd dropped a plan on Monday to charge clients extra for Internet communication services such as Skype, amid a debate on allowing equal access to web content and a backlash from subscribers .. The proposal sparked widespread complaints from Indians on social media and the creation of a website to fight against the plan. 

On Monday though, Airtel said the company had decided not to implement the policy in the face of "news reports that a consultation paper will be issued shortly by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on issues relating to services offered by OTT players including VOIP.

The head of TRAI, Rahul Khullar [pictured] , told local media last week that while Airtel's decision to charge more for these services was not in accordance with net neutrality, it was not illegal."

Well played Airtel. http://t.co/oLKlbEF5dI pic.twitter.com/ay3E7P8Dgp
— Nikhil Pahwa (@nixxin) December 29, 2014

See "Bharti Airtel drops move to charge more for VoIP calls" - here.

Indian MNOs to Surcharge VoIP Traffic

While Airtel subscribers may enjoy free accesss to Facebook and Google (here and here), the Leading Indian MNO is going to surcharge VoIP services, a common step in the fight against OTT services.

In other countries, such a move led to tight Net Neutrality laws (Singapore, Netherlands).

Telecom Lead reports that "Indian telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has increased VoIP call charges to 4 paise / 10 KB for 3G service to take on OTT players. For comparison, Bharti Airtel charges 0.25 paise per 10 KB for traditional 3G data .. its rivals such as Idea Cellular and Vodafone India are expected to follow suit, leading to a debate over net neutrality.

At the end of June 2014, Airtel had over 209M subscribers,

Source: Airtel Investor Presentation: Nov, 2014

“We have made some revisions in the composition of our data packs and will offer VoIP connectivity through an independent pack that will be launched shortly. Our customers can continue enjoying voice calls over data connectivity by opting for this VoIP pack, or simply use VoIP services on pay-as-you-go basis,” a Bharti Airtel statement said.

See "Airtel takes on OTT with higher VoIP call charges" - here.

Network Intelligence, the Big Screen Version

Well - this time I let the picture speaks for itself ..

Nokia Siemens Networks announced that ".. Bharti Airtel has recently unveiled a new Network Experience Centre in Manesar near Gurgaon, India. This center includes a 3600-square-foot video wall powered by Nokia Siemens Networks’ dashboard solution. The solution monitors and analyzes the various aspects of the operator’s entire network operations, and presents them in a unified video view to make monitoring and analysis of Bharti Airtel’s operations simpler and more efficient ..  This dashboard solution is different from conventional dashboard, as it provides performance and usage view of Airtel network and services across geographies, mobile services and devices. With this solution, the operator can ensure the best service quality management and customer experience for its customers.

See "Video wall bigger than a tennis court gives Bharti Airtel complete network view" - here.

[Wireless Intelligence]: Top 20 Global Operator Groups

    

Wireless Intelligence published its ‘Scoreboard’ operator ranking.for Q2, 2012. "The new ‘Scoreboard’ tracks the top 20 global operator groups by connections based on majority-owned assets in Q2 2012. Minority holdings (less than 50 percent plus one share) are excluded from the analysis".

Compared to the Q2 2011 scoreboard (see "World's Top20 Mobile Groups" - here) - Bharti Airtel (now #4) and Telefonica (#5) switched places.

  

"China’s three mobile operators all recorded double-digit subscriber growth over the last year .. France Telecom (#12) returned to the top 20 after dropping out of the list a year ago".

Source:Wireless Intelligence

See "Analysis: The top 20 global operator groups by mobile connections (Q2 2012)" - here.

PCRF Deployments [94]: Bharti [India] Uses PCRF for Billing and VAS (and Needs to Scale!)

 

Gagandeep Kaur, interviewed Amrita Gangotra (pictured), Director IT, India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel to Light Reading on the IT changes to the operator network in India.

Among other IT issues, Ms. Gangotra was asked about the changes made to the IT systems "before the launch of 3G services few months back"

The answer was: "3G had a significant impact both on the network and IT side. We implemented PCRF for the first time last year. The business logic around billing had to pretty much change. When we implemented PCRF, it was not in its full-fledged form but obviously we are improving  .. The challenge that we have is that our scale is huge [see below]. As soon as we deploy any system we have to start thinking of scaling it. A lot of times, vendors test out the scale in our environment. And it is a pre-paid market ...so the behavior of PCRF has to be adopted for this market. Last year we started a project called Vastu, which was about the technical initiatives which we needed to take to bring-in the VAS vendors on a common platform".

As for the scale issue - according to the latest report from the Cellular Operators' Association of India (here), Bharti-Airtel added 1.15M subscribers during August 2011, bringing the total number of subscribers to 171.8M, the largest Indian mobile operator with 28% market share.

See "Interview - Amrita Gangotra: Director - IT, India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel" - here.