Bharti Airtel drops VoIP hike plan

India’s largest telecommunications carrier by subscribers, Bharti Airtel has dropped the plan to hike the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) charges on Monday, as it announced for a hike in last week.

Following widespread complaints from Indians on social media sites, the company has dropped the plan to hike the VoIP rates on Monday, said in a company statement.

Last week, Bharti Airtel had announced to increase the VoIP rates to 16 times. And the customers had to pay more for using Internet communication services applications – Skype, Viber, Line; the applications typically let users make free calls through the Internet.

Based on standard rates, VoIP usage cost per one GB of data usage, Rs.4000 per on 3G network and Rs. 10,000 on 2G network.

The move from the Bharti Airtel would give relief to the existing customers those have been using these internet communication applications.

Rahul Khullar, the head of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), said last week to media, that the decision to charge more for VoIP by Airtel was not in accordance with the net neutrality, it was not illegal.