Airtel has launched 'One Touch Internet', it's own version of a gateway to the web, which offers a limited set of services as trial packs to consumers. This is in line with Airtel's strategy of offering Internet to consumers as services, rather than as data, and has significant implications for net neutrality. Airtel currently has 15.5M 3G connections and 40.1M mobile Internet connections, and it wants more. We checked, and the gateway includes services from the following "vendors", in the following order: - Refer a friend - Facebook - Twitter - 2G to 3G - Videos (entirely from YouTube) - Free Facebook (watch an ad and watch free Facebook) - Mobile phone offers for Airtel Users - eShopping (first screen has Snapdeal, and on swiping right, Flipkart) - Travel: with only MakeMyTrip - Photo Store - Video Store - News (hosted on AirtelLive, appears to be powered by India Today) - Sports - TV (coming soon) - Movies (coming soon) From a net neutrality perspective, this means that while Snapdeal and Flipkart are featured to first time users, Amazon and Infibeam lose out. YouTube is showcased, and Dailymotion isn't an option. Only MakeMyTrip gets access to Airtel users, and Cleartrip and Yatra miss out; India Today gets read, but Times of India and Rediff don't. Why has Airtel selected some services, and not others? Access to the Internet via this gateway isn't neutral, and we see this as an anti-net neutrality ploy from Airtel. Possibly a bait and switch game We see this…
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