NEW DELHI: Amid a controversy over net neutrality sparked by Bharti Airtel charging more for voice calls on services such as Skype and Viber, the phone company’s own VoIP service, Airtel Talk, has kicked up a storm.International long distance operators (ILDOs) have complained to the telecom regulator that Airtel was resorting to unfair and discriminatory practices by promoting its own such app. They said the company was selectively marketing the app in a pre-call announcement (PCA) on some calls from overseas to Airtel subscribers in India. While Bharti Airtel defended its position to the regulator, sources said the company had discontinued the announcement after its communication with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). A company spokesman declined to comment.“The company is selectively playing a tune, promoting its new app on calls carried through the network of an international operator other than Airtel’s collaboration ILD operators,” the regulator cited the ILDOs as having said in its own note seeking Airtel’s response. ET has seen Trai’s note as well as Bharti Airtel’s reply to it.According to the Trai letter, the pre-call announcement said: “Experience the best way to call to India, download Airtel Talk from your app store now.”The Airtel Talk website carries a list of charges for international calls and SMS, featuring packages for India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Nigeria . The plans start at $2 a month for India, which allows for 165 voice minutes.Last week, Airtel announced higher tariffs for voice over internet protocol, or VoIP, on its mobile network. Subscribers will have to pay as much as four times the amount previously charged on a regular 3G data tariff plan. The move, widely viewed as challenging the principle of net neutrality, was defended by the operator as a means of having “tenable” business operations in the country. The new VoIP rates will also apply to Airtel Talk.Airtel defended the pre-call announcement for its app in its response to Trai, saying the move was not anticompetitive or discriminatory. It said this was an active communication tool and already an established practice.“Almost all mobile operators play prerecorded messages about billing/service/network related information to an original caller before the outbound commencement of the call takes place,” the operator said in its letter to the regulator, justifying its use of the marketing tool.The company has also denied allegations that the announcement was played selectively. “We submit that we have played this on all international calls terminating on our network, irrespective of the ILDOs,” Airtel said.It has further said that the pre-call announcement promoted competition, rather than killing it. “By playing PCA, Airtel doesn’t deny market access in the relevant market for telecom services,” the company explained, adding that its actions were in full compliance with competition laws.