Telecom leaders call for net neutrality relook, flexibility in 5G slicing

Airtel and Vodafone executives seek flexibility in network slicing to monetise 5G, while MediaNama's Nikhil Pahwa warns that differentiation could hinder innovation

Senior telecommunications (telecom) executives have called for a rethink of India’s net neutrality rules, arguing that operators need more flexibility to offer differentiated services on 5G networks and generate returns on their investments. Net neutrality advocates, however, warned against disrupting the long-established principle of an open internet.

 

Speaking at a panel discussion on the pre-event business day of India Mobile Congress on Wednesday, Rahul Vatts, group chief regulatory officer at Bharti Airtel, said there was a need for stakeholders to debate whether the existing principles needed to be revisited.

 

“I think there is a real cause for us to sit down as stakeholders to understand, do we need to relook at principles? Do we need to have a larger debate in terms of larger principles of the regulatory landscape?... rather than to just carry in our head that there is a net neutrality principle. There are regimes where there is no net neutrality, are they any less in terms of anything? No. Have they not followed open internet?”

 

Airtel rolled out a 5G network slicing service called Fast Lane for its postpaid customers earlier this year, drawing concerns over net neutrality. The Department of Telecommunications issued net neutrality principles in July 2018, followed by amendments to the unified licence for telecom service providers and internet service providers. The principles require internet access to be provided without discrimination based on content, user, platform, application or device.

 

Vatts said the recent rollout had enabled Airtel to offer a differentiated experience to its postpaid customers while improving overall network performance.

 

“There are different models that are being experimented… A lot of people are trying slicing for enterprise business applications. (For) all the business users, why should they not be on a separate slice for a video calling facility or even for using applications of connectivity? That is something we have to now try and explore,” he said.

 

Ben Wreschner, government relations director at Vodafone group, also called for greater flexibility for operators. “We have an open internet regime in Europe that is the net neutrality regime, which, in my opinion, assumes that anytime we are trying to be dynamic or being differentiated, we are actually discriminating. In my view, that is a legacy mindset from days of 3G where connectivity and content were the same thing. Actually, they are not the same thing.”

 

He added, “If we are allowed to be dynamic in how we (operators) manage our networks and if there is an acceptance that connectivity is not a single homogeneous item but is actually a series of differentiated products… If dynamism and differentiation are allowed to be unleashed, then operators around the world will be much better placed to unlock the value of 5G.”

 

Vatts said telecom operators had invested $6.5 billion over the past five years, but only 40 per cent of telecom sites in the country were connected to fibre, pointing to the need for more investment.

 

“We have to monetise 5G technology. We are talking about 6G, if we don’t get the juice out of it (5G), it will be very difficult for the operators to say I am ready to invest into the next paradigm… Sub-$3 average revenue per user (Arpu) is not an Arpu given the investments that we have lined up,” he said.

 

However, both Vatts and Wreschner said they supported the principle of an open internet. “Why would I want to disrupt my subscribers’ experience… Technology today allows you to create a differentiated slice where you can give a differentiated experience not at the cost of an existing subscriber,” Vatts said.

 

Countering the argument for greater differentiation, Nikhil Pahwa, founder of MediaNama, said network slicing could divide businesses based on their ability to access different network services. “Creating these slices actually slices businesses into typologies. You need founders running the apps and not go and ask for permission to be on particular slices. What neutrality enables is permissionless innovation.”

 

Pahwa, referring to the growing use of personalised artificial intelligence agents, said the application economy was already undergoing disruption. “We are headed for troubled waters, you don’t want to bring another variable into play for the internet economy in this country.”