Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced a significant change in the company’s telecom network infrastructure, implementing a new slicing technology that will prioritize the 5G experience for postpaid customers. All new and existing postpaid customers on Airtel’s network will gradually be able to take advantage of this new network slicing method, as long as their phone supports 5G SA or standalone network. The move raises questions about the resulting experiences of other users on the network, including millions of prepaid users, and reignites the net neutrality debate.
Network slicing technology subdivides a single 5G network into multiple virtual networks, unknown to the user. Each of these virtual networks, called slices, essentially creates different lanes for traffic based on a specific subset of users, devices, and network congestion. For example, if the network is heavily used at a concert venue, 5G speeds and call quality are affected across the entire user base. With slicing, Airtel hopes to give priority to premium postpaid users as the network grows.
Shashwat Sharma, CEO, Airtel, said, “Priority Postpaid is our latest innovation powered by 5G slicing technology. It delivers a better, more reliable and trustworthy experience to our customers, whether they are attending a client call in traffic, or streaming to a packed concert, or booking a cab in a crowded market.”
Slicing requires a 5G standalone (SA) core, a major upgrade for Airtel’s network is nearing completion. HT can note that at the same location and on the same Airtel Black plan, an Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max can enable 5G standalone from Settings, but an iPhone 17 Pro Max and an iPhone 17e still can’t.
Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst at research firm Techarc, told HT that this is “a strategy by operators to entice more customers to switch to postpaid” and warned that it could be a “bandwagon effect”, where telcos believe that a consumer buying a premium smartphone may also be willing to pay premium prices. The expectation is that as the gap between prepaid and postpaid average spend narrows, postpaid will drive greater customer loyalty.
According to official data, Airtel’s average revenue per user (ARPU) is ₹257, A ₹2 decline compared to the previous quarter. Reliance Jio has reported ARPU ₹214 (above ₹213.7) in the previous quarter while Vi had registered ₹190 ARPU (which is above ₹175 a year ago). It is an important metric for telecom companies to profile their user base and assess overall profitability.
This raises questions about whether Airtel’s Priority Postpaid violates net neutrality rules set by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). These rules, finalized in 2018, are built on three key principles – no discriminatory pricing (such as different tariffs based on content or apps used), no blocking or throttling of specific websites, apps or services, and no commercial preference to drive traffic to certain content or applications. However,
With Airtel Priority Postpaid, the telco can argue that it is not violating any of the three directives – the price of postpaid plans does not change. However, the argument could be that prioritizing connectivity for postpaid users on the network over prepaid users would benefit the apps being used by the latter. These may include Airtel’s own Xstream Play streaming app, as well as bundled subscriptions including Amazon Prime, JioHotstar, and Adobe Express.
Network slicing, as a method, is deployed extensively by telecommunication networks in the US, UK, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as in Finland, China, Germany and South Korea.
For example, Singapore’s Singtel has a ‘Priority’ plan for consumers where slicing promises stable internet speeds for these customers in high-usage locations. Operators in many countries also use slicing for fixed wireless access (FWA) on the network, so that home and office broadband on 5G networks can provide the same speeds as wired broadband. Airtel and Jio offer FWA broadband products for homes and offices in India.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) believes that 5G network slicing is a transformative technology. “We welcome the introduction of 5G network slicing capabilities in India, which is an important milestone in the development of next generation digital infrastructure,” says Lt Gen Dr SP Kochhar, Director General, COAI. He said this reflected the “rapid progress of the country’s telecom ecosystem”.
Kawoosa believes that deploying network resources in favor of postpaid users should not worsen the experience for prepaid users. “While a premium product or service should provide an enhanced experience, that doesn’t mean others will suffer,” he says.
“Network slicing is creating a virtual network subset, which is a fragment of the same physical network that has a different level of privileges, service level agreements, authorization, provisioning, and other factors that define a telecommunications network or service.” They called it a “toll road”, which allows a certain group of drivers to drive faster than others.
In an earnings call in April, Reliance Jio had mentioned plans for a ‘premium 5G’ service. Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy at Reliance Jio Infocomm, had said, “On the product side, we can offer 5G premium services with our stack. Now, some of this is being done on a trial basis. We need to ensure that we are completely regulatory compliant, but these products are market ready.”
While Airtel has been insisting that the introduction of network slicing brings India at par with other mature telecom networks around the world, regulators are likely to take a closer look at the proposal in the coming days.