On Tuesday i,e on 14th April 2015, Flipkart announced its decision to commit itself to the larger cause of Net Neutrality in India. Flipkart to walk way from discussions with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero. Flipkart issued a statement on Twitter saying they were in support of Net Neutrality.

Flipkart said, “We exist because of the Internet. Over the past few days there has been a great amount of debate, both internally and externally, on the topic of zero rating, and we have a deeper understanding of the implications,”. It also stated that net neutrality applied equally to all companies in India irrespective of the size or the service being offered and there is absolutely no discrimination whatsoever,”.  Flipkart CEO taken twitter the social media as a platform to the Airtel Zero programme.

Airtel Zero Programme :

Both Airtel and Flipkart had to face a severe backlash from supporters of net neutrality.  “Airtel Zero programme that enable users to get access to applications and services with zero data charges. This platform allows the customers to  to access chat apps, e-commerce sites, gaming portals, and other Internet-based services without any data charges. Bharti Airtel will collect the data charges from the app service providers. This seems to be be very interesting for the customers to access their favorite apps without paying,”  said Srini Gopalan, Director, Consumer Business, at Bharti Airtel.

We at Flipkart have always strongly believed in the concept of #NetNeutrality, for we exist because of the Internet. http://t.co/XTxK9l6cdU

— Flipkart (@Flipkart) April 14, 2015

Official statement from @Flipkart regarding #AirtelZero and #NetNeutrality pic.twitter.com/ItbjUbdLm3

— Ashwin Mushran (@ashwinmushran) April 14, 2015

Large number of emails received by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI). More than 1.5 lakh emails showering inbox extending their support for the internet to be treated as equal by all telecom operators.