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Facebook backfires TRAI wall; supporters asked for specific replies
Free Basics, which Mr Zuckerberg, 31, says will bring free internet to millions of poor Indians through their cellphones, has been attacked by tech entrepreneurs and many others as created to violate the principles of net neutrality, the concept that all websites on the internet are treated equally.
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The TRAI has asked Facebook and Reliance Communications to suspend Free Basics until a final policy decision is made next month.
A Facebook scheme to provide free internet access to people in developing nations has been suspended in Egypt.
Start-ups, entrepreneurs and an internet association have opposed offering free internet through Facebook’s Free Basics.
It would therefore put the small providers of content as well as the startups that do not participate at a big disadvantage.
Telecom regulator Trai will write back to people who have commented through a template supporting Free Basics to answer specific questions asked by it in consultation paper on differential pricing of data – a net neutrality issue. Since the launch, more than 3 million people have signed up for the service, and 1 million of them received access to the Internet for the very first time in their life.
The crackdown by Egypt government is definitely a setback for Facebook’s ambitious program as Egyptian government did not clarify why the service was halted.
“Instead of recognizing the fact that Free Basics is opening up the whole internet, they continue to claim – falsely – that this will make the internet more like a walled garden”, Zuckerberg wrote, in an op-ed for the Times of India.
“What reason is there for denying people free access to vital services for communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming and women’s rights?” Egypt announced ban on Facebook’s Free Basics. And Facebook has issued a series of full-page newspaper advertisements and billboard banners in an aggressive campaign to counter the protests. In an interview with Mansi Taneja, Trai Chairman R S SHARMA talks about net neutrality and call drops compensation which will come into effect from tomorrow.
Free Basics has launched in 37 countries so far.
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Operators will have to compensate users from tomorrow.