Google puts zero rating plans on hold in India, wants to wait and watch

Learning from others’ mistakes, Google has deferred all plans to provide free data to end users in India by zero rating certain apps. The search giant is not ready to take any risk and afraid of public backlash that came up against a similar move by Facebook and Airtel.
Google has been discussing with telecom operators and applications developers to launch a zero rating platform in the county. But it has now decided not move further in this direction. "Google has shelved the idea of any kind of zero-rating tie-up because it was very scared of the backlash which came up against (Facebook's) Internet.org in India," two people familiar with the development told the Economic Times.
Regarding the zero rating plans, a Google spokesperson said, "We don't comment on rumours or speculation."
What it is Zero rating? Zero rating — or, the practice of letting users access select applications free of data charges by striking deals with telecom operators — has been hugely debated in India.

While some people argue zero rating initiatives will help bring first time users online with free data, a majority of people feel that it's against the principles of net neutrality as it will give priority to certain apps and services, and small players will get sidelined.

Social networking giant Facebook and the country's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel were recently criticized for their zero rating initiatives Internet.org and Airtel Zero, respectively.
Online retailer Flipkart and some other Internet companies have walked out of discussions to be part of the Airtel Zero initiative while many partners pulled out of Internet.org as well.

"Saying that having some internet access is better than having no access is like saying slavery is better than unemployment," said Mishi Choudhary, legal director at the Software Freedom Law Center, which provides free legal services to not-for-profit developers of free and open source software.
"We want an open internet where Indians are not just consumers but creators.... We want to create and reach everyone, whether we are a big Silicon Valley business or a small one," she said.
Sources said Google wanted to act as an intermediary between the app developers and internet carriers. It wanted to create a marketplace where telecom operators could put up their zero rating plans and app developers could purchase them to zero-rate the mobile data used by their apps and gain access to a wider customer base.
"Google wanted to have a metering system at the telecom service providers' end and that was an issue as well," said sources cited above. Earlier reports suggested Google was looking to launch the initiative at its annual developer conference on May 28.
Meanwhile, the Indian government is expected to come out with a set of guidelines on regulating over-the-top players like WhatsApp or Skype, following a consultation process it kick started earlier this year.

(Image: Indiatimes)