“Today India’s telecom regulator chose to restrict programmes that provide free access to data”.
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In a statement, the TRAI said that “Allowing price differentiation based on the type of content being accessed on the internet, would militate against the very basis on which the internet has developed and transformed the way we connect with one another”.
“This limits one of Internet.org’s initiatives, Free Basics, and also programs by different associations that give free access to data”.
Ironically, Facebook’s Internet.org was launched a year back in India, which was later named Free Basics. We know that connecting them can help lift people out of poverty, create millions of jobs and spread education opportunities. Whether Facebook will continue to use Free Basics with the slight adjustment in the program or it will come up with an altogether different program for India.
Currently, there are 300 million Indians who have access to mobile internet but still has a billion more who are not connected to the internet.
Vikas Pandey, digital producer for the BBC in India, said there had been an intense publicity campaign on both sides of the debate, with Facebook taking out front page advertising in national newspapers to defend the scheme.
Under this program, Facebook offers pared down internet connectivity services on mobile devices along with the Facebook social network and messaging services at no fee. Recently, TRAI has put curtains on Facebook’s Free Baiscs program as it feels that it will violate the net neutrality.
“Everyone in the world should have access to the internet”.
“Hats off to the Trai for ruling in favour of a free and open internet”. Internet.org has many initiatives, and we will keep working until everyone has access to the internet. InMobi agreed: “I wholeheartedly support Trai’s decision on this issue”. But all they have to offer in return is ‘no Internet for poor people, ‘ Jerri added.
Essentially everything on the Internet is agnostic in the sense that it can not be priced differently.
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Telecom operators see Trai’s regulations as “an attack on their freedom” to approach the market and expect adverse impact on expanding connectivity in the country.
