This refers to Bhupesh Bhandari's column "As neutral as it gets" (White Knight, April 24). The column, although well argued from a certain point of view, misses the economic argument of net neutrality. Imagine, for the sake of argument, that the entire web world has signed in for Airtel Zero; that is, any customer, browsing any site is not going to pay for the connectivity. What does one expect in a world like this? Wastage.
The payment by consumers will also ensure that the marginal utility of browsing a website matches the customer's willingness to pay. When the cost of browsing is being borne by a third party, the wastage of precious net connectivity is almost a foregone conclusion.
Indranil Chakraborty Mumbai
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