Indian e-commerce provider Flipkart has pulled out of Bharti Airtel’s new Airtel Zero service, which subsidises data services for particular apps.
In a statement, Flipkart said: “After reviewing implications of zero rating deeply, we reached the conclusion that it doesn’t meet our standards of net neutrality and violates the principles that we stand for.”
The decision has likely been influenced by vocal protests from net neutrality supporters in India, with Flipkart adding that it would pursue afresh “the larger cause of net neutrality in India”. The country is currently engaged in a heated debate around this subject, which saw Flipkart attempting to justify working with Airtel despite consumer outrage.
The retailer’s statement added: “We will be working towards ensuring that the spirit of net neutrality is upheld and applied equally to all companies in India irrespective of the size or the service being offered and there is absolutely no discrimination whatsoever.”
Airtel meanwhile claims that the ire surrounding Airtel Zero is misdirected, with the operator asserting that the service is available to all. “In the end, the debate over the past few days has brought out one thing clearly – a large number of people are still not clear on what Net Neutrality is all about. This gives an opportunity to the so called experts to make various as well as baseless arguments”, said the operator, adding that “a more informed and nuanced debate” was required.
Nonetheless, Flipkart’s decision is a setback for Airtel – it was by far the most well-known firm to sign up to its Airtel Zero service. It remains to be seen whether other firms will abandon the zero-rating initiative in the face of the net neutrality debate.
