Airtel says backs net neutrality, says on same page with Flipkart

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said the company fully "supported" the concept of net neutrality, which backs a free Internet, adding that the carrier agreed with e-commerce giant Flipkart that the Airtel Zero plan was not about tariffs.

The statement comes within hours of Flipkart withdrawing from its talks to partner with Airtel under the controversial Airtel Zero plan, which seeks to provide free service of browsing the net for certain websites which tie-up with India's largest telco.

However, Flipkart's withdrawal from the plan citing its reason of preference for net neutrality is being seen as a blow to Airtel's attempt to prove that the plan is completely neutral towards all Internet traffic.

In the statement, Airtel said that there have been some misconceptions about its toll free data platform – Airtel Zero - which is a not a tariff proposition but an open marketing platform.

"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," the telco said.

After facing significant backlash on its plans to join Airtel's net neutrality violating service Airtel Zero, Flipkart earlier Tuesday pulled out of the service, saying its committed to the larger cause of net neutrality.

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

Airtel too has suffered a heavy backlash on social media for launching the service which has widely been perceived to violate the principle of net neutrality which requires internet service providers to allow equal access to all web traffic, without any preferential treatment.

In the current case, the toll-free browsing of certain websites was being seen as a move to allow those websites access over the ones for which an internet user would have to pay data charges.

Airtel has maintained that the service allows any application or content provider to offer their service on a toll free basis to their customers who are on our network.