Over the past 2-3 days we have been reading that Bharti Airtel plans to exclude Data usage for VoIP calls from the Data Packs activated by a wireless customer and charge it at a standard rate of 4p/10KB for 3G customers, which translates into about Rs.4 per MB. Rates for 2G customers is 2.5 times higher, but it's pointless as 2G network is not suitable for VoIP calls. With a VoIP call needing about 0.5 MB to 1 MB per minute on 3G network (depending on the VoIP service provider's efficiency), the Data Usage charges alone will be atleast Rs.2 per minute, making it senseless for most users, except for those who make International calls to regions where Call Rates are expensive. And the customer might even think of moving away from Airtel if it persists with this new policy and other operators do not adopt this policy towards VoIP calls.
Apart from the economic reason from the customer's point of view, another reason why this new policy is Plain Stupidity is that it might not please the regulators. Until now most operators had specific plans for Facebook / Whatsapp usage, which made sense especially for those customers who use their Smartphones primarily for those apps. Such plans brought down the monthly Data cost for those customers to more attractive levels. Such plans were not premium plans, they were aimed to bring down the cost for the customer and the operator also benefits by encouraging more & more Smartphone users to try Data service. This VoIP usage exclusion policy will make it very expensive for customers using that service and hence the Regulators will step in to avoid that possibility very soon. In any case Customers themselves will shift their usage to other service providers and ultimately Airtel will lose some portion of their Data Volumes from all such customers.
Overall, this new VoIP tariff policy adopted by Airtel is neither good from the customer's economic point of view, nor is it good from the Regulatory angle, nor is it good from Airtel's own Data Volumes growth angle. Airtel will have to immediately introduce some new plans specific to Data usage for VoIP calls, which don't make VoIP usage so exorbitant. Such plans will give a little more flexibility to customers who do make good use of VoIP service, but I still feel that it won't make economic sense unless those plans bring down the cost of Data usage for VoIP to levels on par or lower than rates charged in other Data packs. This I feel is an unnecessary complication that the operator is adding.
Apart from the economic reason from the customer's point of view, another reason why this new policy is Plain Stupidity is that it might not please the regulators. Until now most operators had specific plans for Facebook / Whatsapp usage, which made sense especially for those customers who use their Smartphones primarily for those apps. Such plans brought down the monthly Data cost for those customers to more attractive levels. Such plans were not premium plans, they were aimed to bring down the cost for the customer and the operator also benefits by encouraging more & more Smartphone users to try Data service. This VoIP usage exclusion policy will make it very expensive for customers using that service and hence the Regulators will step in to avoid that possibility very soon. In any case Customers themselves will shift their usage to other service providers and ultimately Airtel will lose some portion of their Data Volumes from all such customers.
Overall, this new VoIP tariff policy adopted by Airtel is neither good from the customer's economic point of view, nor is it good from the Regulatory angle, nor is it good from Airtel's own Data Volumes growth angle. Airtel will have to immediately introduce some new plans specific to Data usage for VoIP calls, which don't make VoIP usage so exorbitant. Such plans will give a little more flexibility to customers who do make good use of VoIP service, but I still feel that it won't make economic sense unless those plans bring down the cost of Data usage for VoIP to levels on par or lower than rates charged in other Data packs. This I feel is an unnecessary complication that the operator is adding.
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