In its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP), Jio Platforms Limited (JPL) lists India’s net neutrality framework as a business risk, saying the rules could limit how telecom operators monetise advanced 5G capabilities.
“The restrictions under the net neutrality regime may limit a telecommunications operator’s ability to offer innovative services and products, including the ability to offer differentiated or premium services for enterprise applications,” the DRHP states, adding that they “could limit our revenue diversification and monetisation opportunities from advanced 5G capabilities.”
Why network slicing is the pressure point:
- It lets an operator split one physical network into multiple virtual “slices,” each with dedicated capacity and performance.
- The operator can then sell the premium slices, faster and more reliable lanes, to enterprises or individual users.
- Jio says it was the first Indian operator to launch a standalone 5G network, the architecture that makes dynamic slicing possible.
Whether slicing-based premium plans comply with net neutrality remains unsettled, and Airtel brought the question into focus first.
- In May 2026, Airtel launched Priority Postpaid, later renamed “Fast Lane,” offering guaranteed 5G speeds in congested areas for plans starting at Rs 449 per month.
- TRAI is examining whether the plan complies with net neutrality. According to PTI, its preliminary assessment suggested the plan may not breach the rules, and it has sought technical and quality-of-service data from Airtel.
- Critics, argue that it creates user-based discrimination rather than content-based discrimination — effectively creating a fast lane for premium customers in a market overwhelmingly dominated by prepaid users.
India’s net neutrality rules target content-based discrimination, leaving user-based differentiation in a grey area. TRAI’s eventual position on Airtel could shape how similar Jio offerings are treated.
Jio’s public position:
- At a TRAI event in February 2026, Reliance Jio president Udai Kumar Srivastava said service-based slicing already works under current rules, citing Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), which Jio brands as AirFiber, as an example. “There is absolutely no clash,” he said, adding, “there is no violation as such in our opinion.”
- In its submission on the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) spectrum auction, Jio urged TRAI to take a “flexible approach” to net neutrality. It cited the United States, where the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed its rules in 2017 and a 2025 appeals court ruling has since blocked their revival, and the United Kingdom, where Ofcom’s 2023 guidance allows operators to offer premium-quality packages and specialised services, including network slices for enterprise customers, subject to safeguards.
On its April 2026 earnings call, Reliance Industries’ Director of Strategy and Planning,…
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