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Tuesday, April 07, 2015

India and Brazil biggest zero-rating markets: Airtel flouting net neutrality

This graphic illustrates the Internet.org problem for the 200m Brazilians and 1.3billion Indians of whom over 200m already have an Internet-enabled zero-rated smartphone:



Critics warn Airtel for flouting net neutrality; startups, others can offer apps for free on platform - The Economic Times: "Some experts pointed to the lack of guidelines which allow formation of an increasing number of such partnerships. In February, Reliance Communications tied up with Facebook to launch Internet. org in India, which provided access to 33 websites free of charge. In another instance, Uninor offered free usage of WhatsApp for Rs 1 a day and Rs 0.5 per hour for Facebook last year, and followed up with free Wikipedia for three months beginning April 1.

This was another way of offering zerorating plans, promoting unbridled access to the Internet, said a senior executive.

Another top industry executive said, "All these offerings seem to be violating the principle of net neutrality, but in the absence of any laws, what is to stop them for forming such partnerships."

The debate on net neutrality is set to heat up as the telecom regulator has sought comments from industry on a consultation paper floated recently on net neutrality in the Indian context."  'via Blog this'


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