It has emerged that Bharti Airtel wants TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) to permit it to serve video content exclusively to its subscribers in the country. If allowed to do so, the company will undoubtedly kick up the net neutrality debate which settled down not too long ago after the regulatory body banned differential pricing. The service provider is seeking TRAI’s blessing for partnering up with an unnamed big global content provider in order to deliver video to its customers.
Remember how Facebook’s Free Basics was only available to Reliance users even though Mark Zuckerberg said any telco could offer it to subscribers? Well, Airtel’s proposed platform will be stained by a similar feature of exclusivity. Currently, the network carrier may only be talking about video content, but it has plenty of wiggle room to host other services through this method because TRAI only put the kibosh on differential rates over the internet. The same rule does not apply to intranet or closed networks.
Airtel wishes to tie up with the unspecified video content provider to deliver the aforementioned service over CECN (closed electronic communications network). So technically speaking, it should be perfectly legal. There’s no easy way to guess what will happen if TRAI gives the nod to Airtel. Even net neutrality advocates are likely to be divided over the looming problem. Let’s pretend the mysterious suitor courting Airtel is Netflix and that the latter’s content is provided for free to the telecom brand’s users.
Also see: TRAI bans differential pricing in favor of net neutrality
In this case, it could be judged as an attempt to evade TRAI’s regulations on differential rating by serving subscribers through a closed network, thus making it illegal. The regulatory body’s ban on discriminatory pricing is meant to protect not just citizens, but individuals and small businesses from being crushed by unfair competition. Let’s see how this one plays out.