Bharti Airtel defends 'Priority Postpaid' service before DoT panel, denies net neutrality violations
Bharti Airtel has defended its new "Priority Postpaid" service before a Department of Telecommunications (DoT) panel, asserting that the offering, powered by 5G network slicing
Bharti Airtel has defended its new "Priority Postpaid" service before a Department of Telecommunications (DoT) panel, asserting that the offering, powered by 5G network slicing, neither violates net neutrality norms nor degrades service quality for prepaid users, sources said. According to the submission made by Airtel in response to a clarification sought by the Committee on Communications and Information Technology, the company said not allowing the use of mainstream features of 5G to offer services will jeopardise the potential of 6G in the country.
"Priority Postpaid is implemented in a content-neutral manner and is fully consistent with the existing TRAI and DoT framework. There is no blocking, throttling, content-specific prioritisation, zero-rating, or preferential treatment of any application," Airtel said in the submission. Airtel had launched "Priority Postpaid" plans on May 19, which promise consistent speed even in crowded markets for postpaid customers. "Airtel Priority feature does not degrade the quality of service for any customer, whether prepaid or postpaid," the company said in the submission, as per sources.
A query send to Bharti Airtel did not elicit any reply. Also Read | Bharti Airtel launches Priority Postpaid service with 5G slicing The company said that at present, overall 5G capacity utilisation is around 38 per
cent in busy hours. Within this, postpaid traffic accounts for only about 4 per cent, which, after the introduction of a virtual "tunnel" (slice) for Priority Postpaid, may move to around 6 per cent, the company said.
The BriefWire