Last week Airtel was in news, obviously not because of positive thing but because of violating Net Neutrality, last week Airtel has decided to separate all voice and video calling from its data package and charge it separately. Which means if you make video calls using Skype, Viber or any other service then you will be charged separately, no matter if you have active data package or not, for every VOIP made by you Airtel will apply separate charges for you.
To defend its decision Airtel latter announced a new data pack for VoIP calls but Airtel’s this decision was highly criticized and users took social media website’s to show their anger. Soon Government said that they will look into this matter and will soon come up with some guidelines.
After getting criticism from all corners today Airtel has issued an statement in which they had said that currently they are temporarily withdrawing their VOIP package and waiting for some guidelines from TRAI for OTT (Over The Top) players like WhatsApp, Skype, Viber and so on, which means now ball is in TRAI’s court and we have to wait and watch what TRAI come up with.
Airtel’s statement says :-
In view of the news reports that a consultation paper will be issued shortly by TRAI on issues relating to services offered by OTT players including VOIP, we have decided not to implement our proposed launch of VoIP packs.
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.
