Category: Airtel

Reliance’s New AD Pulls an ‘Airtel Zero’, Promotes Net Neutrality Violation

While the hue and cry over Airtel’s controversial ‘Airtel Zero’ was justified, we need to be reminded that there are several other players in the market working on a similar plan.

Here’s why we had a problem with Airtel Zero – it was a new platform that let companies buy data to offer their apps to consumers for free. It allowed users to access these apps without incurring data charges. This was seen as a direct violation of net neutrality as it gave priority access to some apps over others.

Now let’s have a look at Reliance’s ‘Freenet’ service. Freenet is a service jointly launched by Reliance and Facebook in India, which hosts around 20 popular websites, (including AajTak, Facebook, Wikipedia etc) free of charge for Reliance customers.

Notice a difference between the two services? We couldn’t find one either. Check out the ad here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT3-9odXdUg&feature=youtu.be

May 7, 2015
All Major Indian Telecom Players Slash Down Roaming Rates by Up to 75%

After Vodafone slashed down their roaming rates, leading telecom operators followed suit, including Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication. All of the operators lowered their roaming rates up to 75% after TRAI cut off the maximum ceiling tariff. Roaming call rates will be cheaper by 40% and SMS by 75%. The above is effective immediately.

For Airtel, incoming rates have been reduced by 40% and outgoing inter-circle calls will be lowered by 23%. Outgoing local call rates will be decreased by 20%, and it reduced local SMS rate by 75%. Outgoing inter-circle SMS rate has been cut by up to 74%.

As for Idea Cellular and Reliance, similarly, these two companies have slashed their roaming call rates by 40%. Idea will now charge incoming calls at 45paise/minute and outgoing is reduced by 20%. Local SMS on Idea will cost 25% lesser, and STD will be charged 38 paise while on roaming.

In the words of Morgan Stanley, American multinational financial service:

Reduction in national roaming ceiling tariff would imply a 2% revenue impact and 4% Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) impact for operators, which could be partly offset by an increase in roaming minutes and any positive differential gains.

Earlier this month, TRAI had cut the maximum rate for STD calls on roaming to Rs 1.15 from Rs 1.50. To read about Vodafone’s new tariff plans, click here.

May 1, 2015
Airtel Introduces Super Cheap Unlimited Voice Calling Schemes for Broadband Subscribers

Following the footsteps of Indian cellular service provider BSNL, Airtel has announced plans to boost its landline service. Bharti Airtel launched an unlimited voice calling service for its broadband customers in the country.

The telecom company announced two voice packs: there is a Rs. 49 pack for unlimited local calls for a month, and the other is Rs. 99 per month plan to make unlimited local and STD calls.

Airtel said in a statement –

In an industry first, it will announce that its broadband customers can enjoy free voice calls to any network in the country 24×7. Customers can enjoy unlimited free local calls with the pack priced at Rs. 49 per month and unlimited free STD+local calls at Rs. 99 per month to any network, anywhere in the country to both landlines and mobile phones round the clock.

The new offers are for non-commercial use, and allow users to make calls to both fixed lines and mobile numbers.

Airtel has an extensive network of fixed-line telephone and broadband services in 87 cities of India, but its user base is smaller in comparison to BSNL. According to a study by TRAI, Airtel has around 3.39 million landline customers in the country, while BSNL had more than five times the fixed-line subscribers, at 16.6 million.

Recently, BSNL announced free unlimited voice calling from 9pm to 7am across India, which will kick off from 1st May.

April 27, 2015
Airtel Finally Speaks Up About Net Neutrality

In the past few weeks, Airtel has managed to unite the online world against it. It did so, by launching the infamous Airtel Zero plan, which is a clear violation of net neutrality. Earlier today, Flipkart, paying heed to the online negativity gathered, announced that it had made the wise decision of backing out of the Airtel Zero plan.

Read what Airtel has to say below:

Airtel fully supports the concept of Net Neutrality. There have been some misconceptions about our toll free data platform – Airtel Zero. It is a not a tariff proposition but is an open marketing platform that

1. Allows any application or content provider to offer their service on a toll free basis to their customers who are on our network.

2. Such customers whether on a data pack or not will therefore be able to access these toll free services free of charge.

3. No site whether on the toll free platform or not under any circumstances is blocked, throttled or provided any form of preferential access.

4. The toll free platform is open to all content providers on a completely non discriminatory basis and operates on the same principle as 1-800 toll free voice services.

The statement made by Flipkart regarding their decision not to offer toll free data service to their customers is consistent with our stand that Airtel Zero is not a tariff proposition. It is merely an open platform for content providers to provide toll free data services. The platform remains open to all companies who want to offer these toll free data services to their customers on a completely non discriminatory basis.

April 14, 2015
Flipkart Backs Off From Airtel Zero, Sticks to the ‘Larger Cause of Net Neutrality’

After facing a barrage of criticism for tying up with the controversial Airtel Zero plan, e-commerce giant, Flipkart, has withdrawn out of the service. According to a Flipkart spokesman, the e-commerce giant has taken the wise decision to walk away from their partnership with Airtel and instead they want to commit themselves to the ‘larger cause of Net Neutrality’.

A week back, Flipkart caused a major outburst when they announced that they would be joining Airtel Zero. This act allows companies to buy data from telcos and offer their consumers free internet access. This lead to violation by discriminating various Internet services on the basis of price.

Here’s the complete official statement from Flipkart:

We at Flipkart have always strongly believed in the concept of net neutrality, for we exist because of the Internet. Over the past few days, there has been an enormous amount of debate, both internally and externally, on the topic of zero rating, and we have a deeper understanding of the implications. Based on this, we have decided on the following:

We will be walking away from the ongoing discussions with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero.

We will be committing ourselves to the larger cause of Net Neutrality in India. We will be internally discussing over the next few days, the details of actions we will take to support the cause.

We will be working towards ensuring that the spirit of net neutrality is upheld and applied equally to all companies in India irrespective of the size or the service being offered, and there is no discrimination whatsoever.

To protest against Airtel’s net neutrality violation, a website has been launched called www.SaveTheInternet.in, using which anyone can send a direct mail to TRAI in support of the cause. According to reports, within three days a record of 1.5lakh petitions were emailed to TRAI.

After Flipkart, many politicians are showing concern and have joined in to pitch in for Internet freedom. Next month, a panel of six members will be set up by the telecom department, who will give in their final take on Net Neutrality.

To know more about Net Neutrality, click here.

April 14, 2015
Report : Government to Intervene on Airtel’s Net Neutrality Violation

Net Neutrality is currently a heated issue amongst the people of India. Recently, Bharti Airtel has received a lot of flak for its contentious “Airtel Zero” plan from social media users. Following the reports of Airtel’s preferential treatment for websites, the government has reportedly decided to intervene and has said that it plans to keep a close watch on the company’s developments.

According to a report by the Times of India, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is looking into the Airtel’s Zero plan to give special privileges to some websites and confined access to the others. A high-rank official stated about the government will take on the Zero plan, “DoT is looking into finer details and whether it goes against the spirit of net neutrality.”

Meanwhile, the Telecomm Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has also started an online protest against net neutrality, which has received a tremendous response from users. Last Saturday, government uploaded a consultation paper called “Regulatory Framework for Over-the-Top (OTT) Services” where stakeholders were asked to comment. Within two days, the government received over 1.5 lakh e-mails asking to protect network neutrality in the country. A vast group of people are in support of net neutrality and want Internet to be a free space – where everyone can access anything at the same speed.

The inspection by DoT will be in conjunction with TRAI’s OTT program and will also bring to light Airtel’s previous attempts to assault net neutrality. The national telecom operator tried to induce differential charges for various online services like Skype, Viber, WhatsApp, but received an aggressive backlash resulting it to withdraw the proposed plan.

The source also stated that the government might not take any immediate action against Airtel and will scrutinize the matter initially. Meanwhile, Airtel has denied allegations and said that the Zero plan is “non-discriminatory” and doesn’t give undue preference to any company.

The net neutrality campaign has gained momentum over social media, and people of diverse streams are joining hands to make Internet a free and fair space. Various campaigns are trending on Facebook and Twitter like #SavetheInternet, #NetNeutrality in an attempt to make sure that the internet doesn’t get dragged into a class system.

April 13, 2015
Redmi Note 4G to Go On Sale Offline Today At Airtel Stores

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G phones will be available exclusively in Airtel retail stores, today. Customers can walk-in to the nearest Airtel stores in six cities, including Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Kolkata to get their Redmi Note 4G without any pre-booking.

Xiaomi has ditched the usual online route, to make available the Redmi Note 4G in the Airtel Stores near you. Airtel, calling it Mi Day will sell Redmi Note 4G on first-come-first-serve basis till stocks last. Users can book the handset from Airtel’s dedicated Mi page and select their preferred Airtel store in the aforementioned cities where they wish to pick up the device.

Post by Mi India.

Airtel postpaid customers having at least 500 MB 3G data pack activated on their connection can easily move to the Redmi Note, however, Airtel prepaid and non-Airtel customers will have to first have to opt for an Airtel postpaid myPlan when they purchase the Redmi Note 4G.

Airtel postpaid users in Bengaluru, where Airtel already has a 4G network, can get up to 10GB free 4G data by logging on to company’s Airtel Live website via their Redmi Note 4G smartphones. In cities where there’s no Airtel 4G network, customers will automatically be upgraded to 4G whenever it is rolled out.

Following are the tariff plan details on Airtel’s 4G services:

January 30, 2015
Airtel Collaborates With Xiaomi to Sell Redmi Note 4G Offline

In a bid to attract more customers to its super fast fourth-generation mobile services, Airtel India has collaborated with Chinese handset maker Xiaomi, to provide 4G device Redmi Note at a price of Rs 9,999 in six cities of India.

The Airtel-Xiaomi collaboration will let users buy Redmi Note 4G handsets from 133 Airtel stores across six cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Kolkata. Users will be able to book the handset from Airtel’s dedicated Mi page and select their preferred Airtel store in the aforementioned cities where they wish to pick up the device. While the booking process has already started yesterday, the sales will commence today.

Similar to Xiaomi Tuesdays flash sales, where the company puts up a flash sale via online retailer Flipkart, Airtel plans to organize a ‘Mi day’ each week at select stores to allow customers to buy the device without having to book it online.

Airtel postpaid customers having at least 500 MB 3G data pack activated on their connection can easily move to the Redmi Note, however, Airtel prepaid and non-Airtel customers will have to first opt for an Airtel postpaid myPlan when they purchase the Redmi Note 4G.

Airtel postpaid users in Bengaluru, where Airtel already has a 4G network, can get up to 10GB free 4G data by logging on to company’s Airtel Live website via their Redmi Note 4G smartphones. In cities where there’s no Airtel 4G network, customers will be automatically upgraded to 4G whenever it is rolled out there.

Following are the tariff plan details on Airtel’s 4G services:

January 2, 2015
Airtel Drops Price Hike on VoIP Packs; Set to Resume Old Rates

Seems like the outcry of millions of Airtel subscribers in India has reached the ears of top officials handling Bharti Airtel. Airtel has dropped the idea of price hike for internet voice calls through apps such as Skype and Viber. In a statement released by Airtel today, the firm clarified that it is taking back the implemented rates on VoIP, keeping in view of the fact that TRAI has already started considering the issue.

The official statement reads, “In view of the news reports that a consultation paper will be issued shortly by TRAI on issues relating to services offered by OTT (over the top content) players, including VoIP, we have decided not to implement our proposed launch of VoIP packs.”

The operator added that it is hoping for an unbiased outcome which will profit both the stakeholders and the Indians, “We have no doubt that as a result of the consultation process a balanced outcome would emerge that would not only protect the interests of all stakeholders and viability of this important sector but would also encourage much needed investments in spectrum and roll out of data networks to fulfill the objective of digital India.”

The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in India is free by all operators but Airtel took a different route by quietly implementing new rates a day after Christmas. The new rate left the user’s eyes wide open as it charged Rs. 1.8 – Rs. 3.98/ minute for audio calls, Rs. 22.50/ minute for video calls and a whooping Rs. 135/minute for HD video calls.

December 29, 2014

Airtel Violates Net Neutrality; Will Now Charge Extra for Free Call and Chat Services

We have heard the term Net Neutrality a lot this year, mostly in the context of the politically charged conversation that is happening in Washington. Net Neutrality is a bedrock principle of the internet. It says that internet providers cannot pick and choose between different internet offerings. For e.g., internet providers cannot charge extra for YouTube or Skype or any other individual website or service. All websites must get equal speeds, and no service can be charged extra. Internet providers are actively trying to dismantle this principle to boost their revenues further. In India, Airtel has drawn the first blood and has introduced extra charges for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Bharti Airtel has brought out the new rates a day after Christmas when it thought no one would notice. The new rates almost feel like the company is holding you upside down and shaking down every last penny you got in your pocket.

This is the official quote from Airtel’s terms and conditions page:

[quote text_size=”small”]

All Internet/data packs or plans (through which customer can avail discounted rate) shall only be valid for Internet browsing and will exclude VoIP (Both Incoming/ Outgoing). VoIP over data connectivity would be charged at standard data rates of 4p / 10 KB (3G service) and 10p / 10 KB (2G service).

[/quote]

Here are the new rates:

Features of VOIP services like Skype, Viber and other free apps	Before	Now
Audio	Rs. 0.00	Rs. 1.8 – Rs. 3.98 per minute
Video	Rs. 0.00	Rs. 22.50 per minute
HD-Video	Rs. 0.00	Rs. 135 per minute

Telephony and Internet service providers have seen a dip in their earnings since the advent of app-based messaging and calling services. Services like WhatsApp have brought down SMS usage, and Skype and Viber like services have affected call based revenues for the companies. This has led to expensive internet data packs which have also resulted in protests in the past. The mobile market in India has become monopolistic as the rates have become stagnant across all service providers. There aren’t a lot of choices left for the consumers. But this move by Airtel is a major assault on the freedom of the internet and can lead to even more attacks on net neutrality if not protested right now. The company has made video chatting service more expensive than ISD calling.

In the information age, internet has become an essential utility, and every day is becoming more intertwined with our lives. We now use it for paying bills, shopping, apply for jobs, gathering knowledge and much more. It has also allowed small start-ups to take on big companies. But by decimating net neutrality, companies like Airtel and others can charge you different rates for different websites. Imagine paying for a browsing data pack, a separate pack for WhatsApp, and an another one for YouTube, and so on. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Airtel just took a step closer to making that future a reality.

A free and open internet is important; it should not just be a service anymore, it should be considered an inviolable right, just like right to freedom of speech. Net Neutrality is supported by big names of the tech world like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others. Airtel has opened a can of worms that needs to be immediately shut down and buried. In America, even President Obama has stood by the Net Neutrality principle. Airtel needs to mend its ways immediately.

Here’s John Oliver explaining the importance of Net Neutrality in his own style.

[poll id=”25″]

Updates:

1. Minister of Telecom has said that the government is looking into it and will come with a structured response.

2. According to TOI, Airtel has said that the new VOIP charges are only meant for Audio calls only, video chats can still be done through data packs. The company says that there will be a 6 month cooling off period before the new charges are introduced. They also added that only prepaid customers would have to get the VOIP pack for audio calls.

December 26, 2014

Airtel Announces ‘One Touch Internet’ Portal to Entice First-Time Internet Users

Airtel India has launched a unique ‘One Touch Internet’ portal in an attempt to persuade first-time Internet users in India. The initiative primarily aims at assisting beginners to learn and get acquainted with the nuances involved as far as the mobile data is concerned. This ploy clearly suggests that Bharti Airtel is tapping into the steadily growing mobile database across the country, eventually increasing its user base in the process.

The One Touch Internet service will bring all the information regarding Airtel’s various popular services concerning Mobile Internet under one roof. The WAP portal eventually will work as a guide that will provide users with free online tutorials and offer them free Internet access for 10 days. The purpose is to make the new users understand how to navigate and work around social networking websites, watch videos or shop online without paying.

As of now, this service is currently available for prepaid mobile customers on Airtel (2G and 3G). What all users have to do is simply dial 111 or visit http://one.airtel.in on their mobile phone’s web browsers to get the tutorials. These informative videos will be available in English and Hindi as of now, though Airtel plans to introduce eight other Indian regional languages in a few weeks.

November 8, 2014
Spectrum Delay to Disrupt Telephony Services in Three Megacities

If you are living in Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata and are a subscriber of either of the two largest mobile service providers, Vodafone and Airtel, there might be trouble brewing ahead for you. Mobile telephony may get disrupted the coming month in these cities because of the delay in spectrum allocation.

In February this year, the spectrum allocation bid took place. All major service providers got their share. But the government allotted the airwaves just this month. This might cause a lot of trouble especially for the subscribers of Vodafone and Airtel, whose spectrum expires in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata by the end of next month. The companies have to vacate the 900 MHz spectrum and shift to 1800 MHz.

The delay in Spectrum allocation can result in disruption of Vodafone, Airtel and Idea services

As the Department of Telecom (DoT) allocated the spectrum to the companies this month, they are asking for a six-month extension. This request was made by GSM industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). According to them, shifting of frequencies and bands require at least six months to make a smooth transition. They said that a lot of groundwork needs to be carried out, which includes new tower locations, antenna tuning, network configuration, etc. And hence, they require a minimum extension of six-month for a seamless transfer.

The decision will affect a giant section of mobile users in those cities. It is estimated that combined user share of Vodafone, Airtel and Idea in Delhi accounts for 26 million, which is almost 79% of the GSM mobile users. In Mumbai, the trio provides GSM services to 72% of mobile users.

DoT, however, hasn’t given any assurance to the companies. The representatives of the industry will be meeting with the officials at the DoT on Friday. The result of the meet will decide the fate of millions of mobile connections. If talks fail, it will not just create a connectivity issue but will create an economical issue as well, considering that a good number of businessmen are now dependent on their phones for their livelihood. We’ll get to know how things work out for everyone this Friday.

October 29, 2014
Samsung and Airtel Team Up to Bring an Integrated Digital TV

The biggest consumer electronics company and India’s prominent mobile and DTH operator are partnering to bring hassle-free entertainment to the Indian shore. Airtel and Samsung have teamed up to bring India’s very first Integrated Digital TV (iDTV).

An integrated digital television (iDTV) set is a television set with a built-in digital Tuner. They make the set-top box obsolete, which is great. Unfortunately, they still require that dish to catch the signal. It would be cool if the electronics market can do away with that too; we’ve had enough of our roof’s looking like a television station.

Coming back to the matter at hand, the iDTV also gives you freedom from the dual remote system that we use presently. On this TV, a single remote system also makes life easy as it comes accompanied with an intuitive user guide.

Shashi Arora, Bharti Airtel’s CEO – DTH & Media said, “The in-built Airtel DTH smart card supports direct signal reception from the dish antenna, thus enabling crystal clear audio-video quality and making these Samsung TVs the smartest available in the marketplace today.”

These iDTV’s will utilize a Smart Card from Airtel, which goes directly into the TV. The devices come in the category of Samsung’s SmartDirect TV. This TV range will start at Rs. 44,900, which seems like a fair price. It also comes coupled with 4 months free subscription as an introductory offer.

So if you wanted to do away with that mess of wires and just kick back in your couch potato mode with just one remote, this might be what you were looking for.

October 22, 2014
Public Wi-Fi Service by Airtel Launched in Hyderabad

Bharti Airtel in association with Telangana government have launched public Wi-Fi services at 17 locations in the city of Hyderabad. CEO of Bharti Airtel, Venkatesh Vijayraghavan said that people can avail these services in seventeen locations and can have upto 750 MB of daily usage per user.

Information Technology Minister, Telangana, K T Rama Rao said that the government is also trying to convince other service providers to offer similar services. “This is just a beginning. We will come to a position where the entire city (Hyderabad) will be Wi-Fi enabled in about four months. Tendering process is going on. The entire 700 square kilometers of Hyderabad city will be covered under Wi-Fi soon,” said Rao.

Vijayraghvan has revealed that optic fibre technology has been used for public Wi-Fi service, which will have a speed of 40 Mbps. Though, it will depend on the number of users who will be latched onto the network of a particular location, he said. Bharti Airtel is in the process of working out the tariff structure for the services, the initiative being a part of government’s agenda of making Hyderabad as the leading cyber city, said Rao.

Users with a valid Indian mobile number will get access to the public Wi-Fi at all seventeen locations by switching thier Wi-Fi on, after which they will receive a One Time Password (OTP) on their respective mobile numbers.

October 11, 2014
Airtel Rolls Out 4G Services In Nagpur

Even though the customers are still not satisfied with the 3G services in our country, Airtel and Aircel are rolling out 4G services with wild speed. Airtel today announced that it will now provide their 4G services in Nagpur. Nagpur will the second city in Maharashtra and 14th city in India to get Airtel 4G services.

Announcing the launch, Ashok Ganapathy, Hub CEO –Maharashtra, Goa & Gujrat, Bharti Airtel (India) said, “We are proud to announce the launch of Airtel 4G services in Nagpur enabling customers to access the most advanced wireless broadband experience available across the globe. As a brand, we are committed to enriching the lives of our customers and invite all the data savvy customers in the city to enjoy this world class data experience which we are offering at unbeatable prices.”

The company says that 4G services user can use this service anytime on either dongles or on Wi-Fi with the home broadband solution of CPEs (Customer Premise Equipment/ routers). Customers can leverage advanced 4G technology capabilities like high definition video streaming with zero buffering, download 10 movies in less than 30 minutes, upload full holiday albums in less than 5 minutes by uploading 2 high quality photos per second and also connect multiple devices without any experience constraint.

Airtel provide 4G dongles at the price of Rs. 1500 and CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) at the cost of Rs. 2500 with array of postpaid and prepaid options. A special plan for heavy Data users is also announced 40 GB of 4g data at the price of Rs. 2000. Company is spreading the word with special demos and kiosks around the city.

July 25, 2014