Airtel told DoT Priority Postpaid is content-neutral 5G slicing with no blocking/throttling/zero-rating or app prioritisation
Launched May 19 for consistent speed; 5G at 38% capacity, postpaid traffic 4% rising to 6% with slice
Prepaid has ~60% capacity headroom; Airtel claims no degradation, warns restricting 5G jeopardises 6G
Airtel Defends 'Priority Postpaid' Service Before DoT Panel, Denies Net Neutrality Violations
Company asserts service is content-neutral, doesn't degrade prepaid quality; 5G capacity at 38% utilisation with postpaid at only 4% traffic
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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.
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A query send to Bharti Airtel did not elicit any reply.
The company said that at present, overall 5G capacity utilisation is around 38% in busy hours. Within this, postpaid traffic accounts for only about 4%, which, after the introduction of a virtual "tunnel" (slice) for Priority Postpaid, may move to around 6%, the company said.
It said that prepaid and other non-priority traffic continues to have additional headroom to roughly 60% of total capacity, making it clear that Priority Postpaid does not and cannot cause degradation for prepaid users.