Airtel Zero was a platform launched on 6 April 2015 in India by

Bharti Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as (d/b/a) Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Currently, ...

, a multinational telecommunications service company across

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

and, at the time, the largest cellular service provider in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, with 192.22 million subscribers. As per reports, Airtel Zero was a platform through which Airtel would have offered users free access to certain

mobile applications A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on des ...

and services from companies who had signed up with Airtel.

History

The announcement to launch Airtel Zero came soon after the

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is a regulatory body set up by the Government of India under section 3 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997. It is the regulator of the telecommunications sector in India. ...

(TRAI) released its consultation paper on OTT (Over-the-top) services and invited submissions on introducing OTT charges. Through the Zero platform, app developers and internet service providers (ISPs) would be able to make a part of their entire mobile app free for customers if they pay Airtel a fixed fee for the cost of data transfer incurred while using their services.. After the launch, Airtel faced the lot of criticism on social media with users claiming it to be against

net neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...

. Later TRAI supported net neutrality and ruled against differential data pricing based on content which resulted in ending

zero-rating Zero-rating is the practice of providing Internet access without financial cost under certain conditions, such as by permitting access to only certain websites or by subsidizing the service with advertising or by exempting certain websites from ...

platforms in India including Facebook Free Basics and Airtel Zero.

References

{{Bharti Enterprises Bharti Airtel Net neutrality