After being accused of violating net neutrality by charging VoIP calls, Indian telecom giant Airtel has announced that it will be charging messages sent via messaging service, Whatsapp, on December 31st, 2014 and January 1st, 2015. Furthermore, Airtel will also be imposing charges for torrent downloads.

“It’s an absolutely logical thing to do. After all these OTT services really go over the top,” Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Mittal told The UnReal Times. “This is just the beginning. After all, The Joker once said, ‘If you’re good at something, never do it for free.’ Everyone is going to use Whatsapp to greet each other for new year, thus ignoring our SMS facilities. We are thinking of charging 1 Re per ‘Happy new year’ message and 10 paise for each smiley along with it. This way, people will at least curb using annoying smileys in their messages,” Mittal added, “The same goes to candy crush invites on FB – every invite will attract a charge of 2 Rs. We’re sure no one will complain about this at least.”

Airtel has further added that they will roll out similar plans for their broadband band users, in compliance with their new policy. “All TV series and movies downloaded using torrents will attract a separate charge equivalent to the existing on-demand rates for these. Our next step will include rolling out an NoIP (Noise over IP) pack, that charges those watching the News Hour through web streaming. The initial plan we’re thinking of is 10p per every 100 dB of noise by Arnab,” Airtel insiders mentioned.

Sources added that Airtel’s future moves could also include charging viewing satire websites, in a new SoIP (Satire over IP) pack.

(With inputs from Ashwin)