Net neutrality: Telcos pitch for level playing field

As the debate continued to rage of Net Neutrality, mobile operators today said if they were not offered a level playing field with Net-based services such as Skype and WhatsApp then their businesses would be viable only by increasing data prices by up to six times.

They added, high rates of that kind, would become unaffordable for a large number of people, effectively denying them access to the internet.

Calling to equal regulations for all communication services, GSM mobile industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said operators were required to ensure a level of service quality, share revenue with the government and intercept communication, for preventing terror attacks but the rules were not applicable to internet-based messaging and calling applications.

PTI quoted COAI vice-chairman and Bharti Airtel India managing director Gopal Vittal as saying, "If same rules are not to apply, then the only way this industry can be viable is data rate will be 6x from where they are there today. After that, you can do what you want. But if you take data rate to 5x or 6x, a lot of people in India will never be able to access the Internet."

In the press conference held Friday, telecom service providers said they did not want all applications to be brought under a licensing regime, but as far as communication service providers like Skype, Viber or Whatsapp Voice were concerned, they wanted the same rules as telecom service providers, which effectively meant that they needed to brought under the same licensing regime, and that they paid similar levies to the government as telecom service providers did.

Vittal said that the company needed to make an investment of Rs5,00,000 crore (around $79 billion).

''With the return on capital that the industry has, which is 1 per cent the real question is for communication services there must be the same rules,'' he added.

As regards zero rating platforms like Airtel Zero and the initiative between Facebook and Reliance, known as internet.org, the view was that if government felt that these zero rating platforms were illegal then these companies were open to not offer such service plans though telecom service providers felt this was some sort of a sampling experience that they wanted to give to consumers.