Bharti Airtel, Reliance, oppose Trai directive to ensure minimum net speed at 512 kbps

KOLKATA: Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Sistema Shyam Teleservices have objected to the telecom regulator’s recent directive that fixed broadband operators ensure a minimum 512 kbps download speed at all times. In its submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai), India’s largest carrier Bharti Airtel said that a service provider should be free to throttle speeds to 64 kbps once a customer has used up the assigned data limit.
“It cannot be the prerogative of the customer to keep accessing data at the defined broadband speed even beyond the assigned quota,” Bharti Airtel said.

“If broadband has to become affordable, the authority should not mandate any broadband speed after exhaustion of (data) quota,” it said. RCom similarly said in its submission that a “service provider should have the freedom to throttle speeds, post-expiry of assigned data limit to prevent misuse of fixed broadband services beyond the designated quota”.

Trai had last month, in a draft direction on boosting transparency in delivery of internet and broadband services, asked fixed broadband operators to ensure download speeds do not drop below 512 kbps in any broadband tariff plan. The sector regulator had made the suggestion on the basis of an amended definition notified by the telecom department in July 2013 that says “broadband is a data connection able to support interactive services, including internet access, and is capable of a minimum download speed of 512 kbps to an individual subscriber”.

However, Sistema Shyam Teleservices too said in its submission to the sector regulator that 512 kbps speed in case of fixed broadband customers be “provided till the consumption of committed data under a tariff plan, beyond which throttling should be allowed to avoid exploitation/misuse by subscribers”.

In a joint letter to Trai, the Cellular Operators Association of India and Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (Auspi) have also called for an immediate revision of the clause advocating a 512 kbps minimum broadband speed.

The lobbies said in the letter that download speed provided to a fixed broadband subscriber must not be reduced below 512 kbps till the assigned data quota of the user expires in line with fair usage tariff plans, especially since some customers tend to misuse the provision and overuse data limit. The Cellular Operators Association of India represents India’s biggest GSM carriers including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.