India's Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and SSTL have all objected to telecom regulator Trai's draft directive to ensure a minimum fixed broadband download speed of 512kbps, arguing that they should be able to throttle heavy users.
Airtel has argued that it should be able to reduce speeds to 64kbps once users have exceeded their data allocations, the Economic Times reported.
Heavy users should not be able to continue to download data at defined broadband speeds even beyond their assigned quotas, the company has insisted.
Reliance Communications and Sistema have likewise insisted that operators should have the freedom to throttle speeds after data quotas have been exceeded to prevent abuse of fixed broadband services.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the body representing India's major GSM operators, has also stepped into the debate.
COAI has lobbied the government to change the wording to stipulate that the minimum download speeds for fixed broadband services should not fall below 512kbs until the users have exceeded their quota.
Trai last month issued a draft directive to ensure minimum broadband speeds do not drop below 512kbps for any fixed line broadband plan. This is to ensure that the services are in line with the telecom ministry's definition of broadband, which stipulates 512kbps as the broadband threshold.