Airtel to continue its postpaid plan despite backlash over 'slicing'

Mumbai: After facing backlash, Bharti Airtel has rebranded its offering wherein it gives priority or exceptional service to postpaid users. The company has changed the “Priority postpaid plan” to "Fast Lane" in a bid to allay regulatory scrutiny, experts said.

However, despite the change in name, the company continues to offer differentiated service to postpaid users and is not looking to withdraw the plan, saying it has received a satisfying response to the launch of the new plan.

“There is no question of withdrawal of our new postpaid plan,” an Airtel spokesperson said.


Also read: Airtel expands 5G footprint, rebrands Priority Postpaid as Fast Lane

The company added its postpaid users continue to remain on a slice. “So, every user who chooses our postpaid plan and has a 5G-capable device gets an enhanced service,”" Airtel said.

The company had launched the new service last month, which it claimed would offer superior and more consistent network experience to postpaid users by leveraging network slicing technology offered by standalone 5G architecture which the company is currently rolling out across India.

However, the new offering has divided the telecom industry with Vodafone Idea strongly opposing the service terming it as discriminatory while Reliance Jio too has said the offering distorts competition and user choice, even though the country’s largest telco supports 5G network slicing. After the rebranding, Airtel’s offering will continue to run on 5G network slicing technology that delivers higher speeds and enhanced network performance to eligible subscribers.

The rebranding from Airtel comes after the launch sparked concerns among consumer groups related to net neutrality. Users argued that prioritising network access for a specific category of users could create a differentiated internet experience.

Airtel, however, maintained that the service does not degrade network quality for prepaid users and that the deployment of its standalone 5G network has actually improved network efficiency for all customers.

"Using our slicing technology, we are able to offer our postpaid users enhanced speed. We also have comprehensive data to show that prepaid users continue to enjoy the very same experience they have had before we launched this technology," the company said. "In other words, slicing has no impact on the experience for prepaid users."

Airtel said it has shared the data with the telecom regulator and added that its implementation is aligned with global telecom standards.

"What we have done is consistent with the global standards that this technology uses in several countries such as the US, UK, Korea and Singapore where it has been launched," Airtel said.

Network slicing is a key feature of standalone 5G networks that allows operators to create dedicated virtual segments of their network for specific users, applications or services. Telecom companies globally have positioned the technology as a way to deliver differentiated quality-of-service offerings without affecting the experience of other users.