Free access for registered users, lower marketing costs for developers… many apparent sweet spots in this new service. But there are net neutrality questions that warrant answering. Many questions.
Airtel today announced a new marketing platform that will enable its customers to access certain mobile applications at zero data charges. Sounds good, but given Airtel’s penchant for releasing schemes that appear to be too good to be true, this bit of news warrants whipping out the magnifying glass.
Let’s look at some of the key phrases straight from their press release today:
- It is an open and non-discriminatory marketing platform for all developers in India – irrespective of the size of their business
- It will allow customers to access mobile applications at zero data charges, akin to the established concept of toll-free voice calling
- It will allow everyone from big marketers to small-time application developers to make parts or their entire mobile app free for customers
- It can work as a highly efficient marketing mechanism for small developers or startup shops: it can deliver the same results as traditional digital marketing channels at 1/3rd the cost
Here's how the service works:
- Mobile app makers register with ‘Airtel Zero’ to give customers toll-free access to their apps
- Airtel informs customers about these toll-free apps
- Customers download and access these apps at zero data charges
So from the developer’s point of view: they pay for the data transfer for their apps listed on the Airtel Zero platform, and can choose to make parts of their apps (or entire apps) free for users signed up on this service.
From the consumer’s point of view, there are two sides:
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A user signed up with Airtel Zero: They gain special access to these apps where the use could be partly or completely free. That is, registered customers are not charged for the ensuing data transfer during use.
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Users not signed up with the Airtel Zero plan: They will obviously not have free or subsidized access to the apps registered with this platform. This would also apply to Airtel customers signed up with any of their other data access plans.
This scenario breeds several questions, all of them hinging on one keyword: choice. Will developers registered with Airtel Zero be allowed to choose to make their apps available outside of this platform? Will non-Airtel users likely encounter a scenario where the developers of the apps they frequently use (Flipkart, Olacabs, Myntra etc) choose to make their apps only available to users of Airtel Zero, effectively forcing a conversion to this type of platform and service?
It is these precise scenarios that should flag net neutrality alarm bells in the minds of consumers everywhere. The instant such arrangements come into force, it becomes a very slippery slope: soon users are being compelled to sign up for restrictive (and potentially expensive) data access plans to be able to use specific apps and web services. And once the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) gain clout and have a say on how consumers access these Web apps, developers may eventually have little choice but to heed their laws and conditions in the long run.
Eventually, it boils down to whether these apps and services are available exclusively via these new-fangled plans. For the Airtel Zero case, in an interview between Medianama and Srini Gopalan, Director - Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel, the question of exclusivity--regarding Flipkart (one of the first apps to register with this service)--was asked but not conclusively answered:
Medianama: So Flipkart doesn’t have any exclusivity in this deal?
Srini Gopalan: This is something we’re opening out to all apps.
Opening out the platform to all apps does not clarify whether each and every one of these apps will need to be exclusively listed on the Airtel Zero platform or not. Also, when asked whether potentially restrictive changes to the plan's structure might be a future possibility, Srini Gopalan’s response was, “I’m not going to talk on my pricing structure a year on. This will stay non-discriminatory, but how it will evolve, I can’t comment on.”
This, to my mind, sounds like a very big back door being left ajar.
In our governing body’s noble ‘Digital inclusion’ quest, subsidized Internet access and free apps are all well and good. But allow these initiatives to freewheel into a situtation where a few large ISPs have ironclad dominion over how consumers access web-based applications and services, and reality suddenly takes a very draconian turn.
On the face of it, Airtel Zero appears to be a noble service for consumers and developers. But they ought to be aware that they cannot and should not, at any future time, morph this into anything even remotely restrictive to fair, ubiquitous usage.
We, the country’s Internet users, are watching.
First published on April 6, 2015
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