Zuckerberg’s defence came after the Indian telecom regulator last week demanded that Facebook’s India mobile partner (Reliance Communications) put the Free Basics service on hold.
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RS Sharma, chairman, TRAI, said that the regulatory authority will not reject the 14 lakh responses favouring free basics and will give a “fair chance” to the respondents to rectify the error and send their answers “question by question”.
While Free Basics is now on ice in Egypt and India, the program could make a comeback after regulators in each country have a chance to examine it. While Free Basics toes the line with net neutrality, it is hard to argue the benefits of bringing more people to the modern age, making the issue a worthwhile discussion for each nation in the program.
Trai has received about 16.5 lakh comments – highest ever on any paper floated by it till date, the official said.
Critics of Zuckerberg’s plan have said that the service is contrary to Net neutrality, the principle that Internet providers allow equal access to all online content, and it also has the potential to discourage innovation and competition in India by offering services for free that other companies must charge for.
He, however, did not elaborate if the people did not reply to Trai, the comments on Free Basics would be termed invalid.
Egypt has made a decision to shut down Facebook’s controversial free internet service Free Basics.
The regulator has received around 12,000 messages other than template based comments.
As per SavetheInternet forum, the net neutrality principle says that internet service providers should not block or discriminate against any applications or content that rides over their networks.
Telecom network operator Etisalat Egypt, a partner of Facebook in Egypt, has suspended the free internet service that it began providing two months ago, Engadget reported.
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Egyptian authorities on Wednesday shut down a free basic Internet service offered by Facebook, the social media platform said in a statement. It provides access to Facebook as well as a host of sites. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which includes members such as Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, said it was opposed to differential pricing, as it violates net neutrality. However, in India, for instance, the service has remained mired in controversy, with many alleging that free access to a limited number of internet services hurts India’s democracy and violates net neutrality – which calls for internet service providers to treat all content the same, regardless of the source.
