'Airtel Fast Lane ssers seeing faster download speeds, lower latency'

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel's contentious Fast Lane postpaid plan provided a smaller section of postpaid subscribers with faster download speeds and lower latencies as compared to standard users, an independent analysis of the network-slicing-based feature by crowdsourced network analytics firm OpenSignal found.

The findings, experts said, will once again open up the debate around network neutrality that came up during the launch of the premium plan, with rival telecom operators raising concerns about whether prioritised access to premium users would affect the service quality of standard users.

"With data now showing a clear advantage in speed, it brings back the question whether a cellular network is allowed to differentiate users on the same network through varied speeds," an industry analyst said, asking not to be named. The analyst added spectrum is a finite resource and operators slicing the network to prioritise high-paying customers would mean the baseline quality for standard users may inevitably drop.