Airtel dropped plans for charging extra for VoIP calls

Faster internet connection is making its way to many mobile devicesvin India and services like Skype, Viber and google hangouts are becoming more common. As they provide better communication using data which is cheaper than normal calling and Airtel sees it as a threat.just like  SMS was killed by IMs like WhatsApp, hike etc all the telecom companies had to face major loss due to revenues from SMS.

Now Airtel is afraid that people will start using data for voice calls which may put a hold on the existing revenues of telecom companies.

Now in august TRAI (telecom regulation authority of India) proposed telecom companies to charge extra for using top services like WhatsApp and Viber to make up for the lost revenue.

Airtel stated in a statement of Hindustan times, that they'll launch separate VoIP pack which will be used for calling over data but with separate balance else you'll be charged from your main a/c even if you have a data plan. The company had said it would charge 10 paise per 10 KB on 2G and 4 paise per 10 KB on 3G

But after customers criticized on social media and created a website to protest they have announced a hold on the VoIP plans

Rahul Khullar (head of TRAI) told local media last week that while Airtel's decision was not in accordance with net neutrality bit it wasn't not illegal either. a consultation paper is said to be issued shortly by TRAI on services offered by OTT players including VoIP.