Indian e-tailing giant Flipkart seems to have realised that it can no longer ignore the growing chorus against net neutrality. As just days after its CEO Sachin Bansal defended net neutrality 'violating' Airtel Zero, the company has pulled out of the service.
The news, first reported by NextBigWhat, has been confirmed by Flipkart spokesperson. In a statement to economictimes, the company said, "We at Flipkart have always strongly believed in the concept of net neutrality, for we exist because of the internet. Over the past few days, there has been a great amount of debate, both internally and externally, on the topic of zero rating, and we have a deeper understanding of the implications."
Over 3 lakh people have emailed telecom regulator TRAI in the last 48 hours via the SavetheInternet.in website, asking that the government ensure that net neutrality is protected in India. That means users should be able to access all websites at the same speed and cost. No website should be given preferential treatment over another.
The government has created a committee of six members to review the issue. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the team's report will be presented in the middle of May "on the whole gamut of net neutrality objective, its benefits, advantages and limitations including the regulatory and technical issues."
Airtel's Zero platform asks partners or content providers to pay for the data consumed by users of the app. That means that smaller companies, for example, who cannot afford those costs, would be left out of the mix.