With massive pressure from all quarters, Airtel has finally decided to roll back its sudden plans to charge its customers for VoIP services.
Bharti Airtel has officially announced that it has temporarily dropped its plans to levy additional charges for VoIP services like Skype and Viber. The company has said it would not comment on the future course until the TRAI issues a consultation paper related to the services offered by OTT providers.
Bharti Airtel had recently shocked its subscribers by insinuating that it plans to charge VoIP calls on pay as you go basis, at standard data rates of 4 paise per 10 KB on 3G network and 10 paise per 10 KB on 2G network. The customers took to social media and other platforms to revolt about the same.
In a statement issued to the media, Bharti Airtel stated, “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 fulfil the objective of digital India.”
