 "StatsGuru: Examining the key numbers for India's mobile phone operators")
IT industry body Nasscom and internet association – IAMAI, of which Facebook is a member, have opposed the differential pricing in data services while all the telecom service providers have favoured the same saying it will encourage innovation besides bringing unconnected people onto the internet platform.
On its consultation paper for differential pricing in data services, TRAI has received about 2.4 million comments out of which around 1.9 million comments came from Facebook users and 0.48 million through the Save the Internet forum. TRAI’s final views will decide the fate of plans such as zero rating and Free Basics being offered by Facebook. These plans created a furore on the issue of net neutrality with many experts saying there is violation of net neutrality principles.
TRAI is expected to come up with its recommendations on the issue by the end of this month.
In its submissions to telecom regulator, Nasscom proposed mandatory prior approvals by the regulator, and sharing of periodic information on tariff plans that seek to price lower or zero rate services and content under such programs.“Differential pricing plans and options should be an exception rather than the rule, including those positioned to address the difficult problem of getting more and more people online in India without compromising on the principles of Net Neutrality,” it said.
IAMAI said differential tariffs will disadvantage the small players and the start-ups. “Giving absolute powers to the telcos will lead to classification of subscribers based on the content they want to access (those who want to access non-participating content will be charged at a higher rate than those who want to access participating content). This violates the principle of non-discriminatory tariff. Differential pricing will lead to paid and unpaid prioritisation by telcos that will lead to anti-competitiveness amongst the website/application/platform providers,” it said.
Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) has also opposed differential pricing for data usage for accessing different websites, applications and platforms. "Differential pricing will skew the market forcing hundreds of thousands of websites and applications out of business by unfairly driving traffic towards lower cost destinations," ISPAI said
Leading telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular came out in full support of differential pricing in data services and pricing/tariff determination should be left with the market forces, they said. Surprisingly, Reliance Jio, Mukesh Ambani’s telecom venture, did not submit its comments on the issue.
Bharti Airtel in its submission to TRAI said, “Connecting a billion Indians to the Internet will only be possible if cost of access is low enough for price sensitive customers. Innovative pricing, such as zero rating and other commercial constructs will be critical for making services affordable enough for large scale consumption and should be permitted.”
Currently, every player in internet ecosystem is experimenting with various marketing innovations and business models to promote their content/website/services. Besides, enterprises have been truing to get more customers on board by providing a method to connect with them. For instances, toll free voice, business paid postage free sampling mechanisms for the internet.
Also, sponsored data allows Internet companies to cut their marketing budgets to 30%, especially since such arrangements are cheaper than direct advertising.
Another telecom player Vodafone echoed similar views and said differentiated pricing for data content expands participation in online content and applications to the underserved, besides increasing mobile wireless penetration.
“The competitive intensity of the market has resulted in largely self-regulatory mechanisms that have ensured the protection of consumer interests and created various innovative tariff offerings for consumers,” Vodafone said.
Idea Cellular went onto say that differential pricing is perhaps the only solution given the colossal task ahead of connecting 1 billion Indians through Internet and making Digital India vision a reality. “Government and the Regulator need to create an environment of innovation and flexibility for operators as well as application providers while balancing the same with principles of tariff forbearance, transparency and non-discrimination This has spurred innovation and customization of solutions in the market. “
According to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Service Providers in India (AUSPI), the need of the hour is internetadoption and increased data usage and whatever facilitates that healthily needs to be supported. “Differential pricing plans are important to meet the needs of various segments of consumers. Imposing regulations that thwart such developments threaten to increase costs and discourage investment in ways that ultimately work to the detriment of the consumers that such regulation is ostensibly designed to protect,” it commented in its reply to TRAI.
It however gave a few guidelines on how price differentiation should be based including giving priority of connecting the unconnected and having transparency, non-exclusivity, non-predatory, non-ambiguous and not misleading pricing policies. TRAI had also asked the stakeholders that ‘if differential pricing for data usage is permitted, what measures should be adopted to ensure that the principles of nondiscrimination, transparency, affordable internet access, competition and market entry and innovation are addressed.’
Comments deluge
The high number of comments – 2.4 million -- received by TRAI on its consultation paper on differential pricing in data services forced the regulator to upload the comments in two parts. While, the first part was uploaded today on its website, another part will be uploaded later.
On Friday -- the first day -- it could come out with few comments in 1000s that too late in the evening, while for the rest 2.37 million comments (received through Facebook users and Save The Internet forum), only a sample response will be made available later because of various reasons. This is the first time that TRAI has received such huge number of comments, besides the first for publishing comments in two parts.
Apart from the comments of telecom players and associations, the few published comments are also not in the format asked by TRAI. For instance, one of the comment says, “Facebook is not doing a favour or charity. They are here to make profit. They want a monopoly by killing the competition. Don't fall in their trap.”
Robert Kahn, the inventor of internet, could have been a multi billionaire if he would not have given internet for free. Instead of thinking about money, he decided that all of the internet should be accessible to everyone without any bias. Do not let these greedy telecom operators violate the rights of people as well as the principle on which internet was made, reads another comment.
