Priority Postpaid:
pay more, cut the queue

To: The Appellate Authority, Bharti Airtel Limited, [Your Circle] Cc: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Consumer Affairs Branch Subject: Complaint under the Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations, 2012 and the Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016 - introduction of Priority Postpaid 5G network slicing as a discriminatory quality-of-service tier Respected Sir / Madam, I am a subscriber of Bharti Airtel on [prepaid / postpaid plan name], mobile number [your 10-digit number], registered in the [Your Circle] service area. I am writing to formally complain about the "Priority Postpaid" service launched by Airtel in May 2026, which uses 5G network slicing to allocate a dedicated bandwidth lane to postpaid customers paying ₹449 plus GST and above, while subscribers on other plans, including the 95% of Indian subscribers on prepaid, are explicitly placed in the residual bandwidth pool during periods of network congestion. My objections, with regulatory citations: 1. Regulation 3 of the Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016 states that "No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services." Airtel's own communications describe Priority Postpaid as a paid tier delivering a different quality of data service to the customer who pays for it, on the same network infrastructure and the same spectrum allocation. This is a discriminatory data service in substance, even if the headline tariff is framed as a plan inclusion rather than a per-byte differential. 2. The Department of Telecommunications amendment of 2018 to the Unified Licence prohibits "granting preferential speeds or treatment to any content." Airtel's official description of network slicing explicitly grants preferential network treatment, by design, on the basis of which billing tier the user is on. The discrimination is by user, not by content, but the practical effect on the public internet is identical: my access to the lawful internet is degraded so that a paying customer's access to the same internet is improved. 3. The "specialised services" carve-out contemplated by TRAI's 2017 recommendations was intended for use cases such as remote surgery and autonomous vehicles, where best-effort internet would be unsafe. A postpaid customer streaming entertainment at an airport is not a specialised service in any plain reading of the term. Stretching the carve-out to commercial mobile usage defeats its purpose. 4. The service is enabled by default for postpaid customers and cannot be opted out of. Subscribers on prepaid plans, the affected majority, are given no notice, no consent flow, no opt-in to the bandwidth pool they have now been placed into. This is a unilateral change in quality of service for which I, as a prepaid user, did not consent. Relief sought: a) That Airtel be directed to either (i) cease the differentiated bandwidth allocation between billing tiers on the same physical cell, or (ii) publish, per cell and per hour, the bandwidth allocation ratio between the priority slice and the residual pool, so that customers can make an informed decision before recharging. b) That this complaint be treated under the two-stage redressal process prescribed by the Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations, 2012, and that the Appellate Authority's response be issued in writing, within the timelines prescribed in those regulations, with a docket number that can be tracked on the Telecom Consumers Complaint Monitoring System (tccms.trai.gov.in). c) That a copy of this complaint be marked to TRAI and to the Department of Telecommunications, as the underlying issue raises questions on the interpretation of the 2016 Discriminatory Tariffs regulation and the 2018 licence amendment, currently under active review by both regulators. Documents enclosed (attached separately): - Screenshot of the Priority Postpaid marketing page on airtel.in dated [date] - Paired speed-test screenshots from [location, pincode, cell ID] taken on [date and time] - Recharge receipt for my current plan - Any prior complaint ticket numbers raised with Airtel customer care on this issue I request a written acknowledgement of this complaint within the timelines prescribed by the Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations, 2012, and a substantive response within the prescribed appellate window. Yours faithfully, [Your Full Name] [Mobile Number] [Email] [Service Address, if landline / broadband; otherwise mobile circle] [Date]