That was too soon, taking the heat from its own customers and also from Government authorities, India’s top telecom operator Bharti Airtel, has withdrawn its attempt to charge VoIP based calling for its 3G and 2G customers. In a statement released by Airtel, they said they have decided to withdraw the plan to charge for VoIP services and launching of VoIP packs as it awaits a consultation paper being issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the issue.
“In view of the news reports that a consultation paper will be issued shortly by TRAI on issues relating to services offered by OTT players including VOIP, we have decided not to implement our proposed launch of VoIP packs.
We have no doubt that as a result of the consultation process a balanced outcome would emerge that would not only protect the interests of all stakeholders and viability of this important sector but would also encourage much needed investments in spectrum and roll out of data networks to fulfill the objective of digital India.“
Earlier on Monday, Airtel brought a new data policy, where every voice calls made through VoIP services like Skype, Viber, Google Hangout, Line and other will be charged separately from your active mobile internet data packs. Customers will be charged at standard data rates of 4 pasia per 10 KB on 3G network and 10 pasia per 10 KB on 2G network.