At the end of December, the regulator appeared to give into this pressure and ordered Facebook’s telecom partner to stop Free Basics in India, pending a “specific approval”.
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Equally of concern, said TRAI, was Facebook’s “self-appointed spokesmanship” on behalf of those who had sent emails to TRAI using its platform.
In an appeal in the mass-circulation Times of India, the Facebook founder forcefully defended introducing his Free Basics service as “a set of basic internet services for education, healthcare, jobs and communication that people can use without paying for data”. “While we did not include all of the specific language drafted by TRAI, we did deliver a request for additional information and included in the draft email the exact language from the four specific questions posed in the consultation paper”, a Facebook spokesperson said.
For its part, Facebook has alleged that a majority of the comments and responses that it had collated and sent to TRAI in response to the regulator’s consultation paper were not received by TRAI because an “individual with access to the TRAI email account designated to accept comments” took action that blocked receipt of all emails from Facebook. There has been some discrepancy in the reported numbers as Trai claims that it received only 1.89 million replies whereas Facebook claims that the number to be more than 11 million.
“In light of the tangential nature of the responses by the users to the questions asked, the communication of such text was vital to demonstrating and ensuring that those who are responding to TRAI are making informed decisions”. Now Trai has published a letter signed by K V Sebastian, Joint Advisor, Trai, written to Ankhi Das, Director Public Policy, India, South and Central Asia, Facebook.
TRAI in its response asks why Facebook did not a formal complaint, if they felt that their email id had been blocked.
If reports are to be believed, the social networking giant has spent a staggering sum of Rs. 300 crores on Free Basics ads in India.
The letter adds that despite two specific requests around the same issue, it was reasonable to infer that Facebook had not communicated the full text of Trai’s message to the users.
“As communicated by Chairman, TRAI in his meeting with Facebook representatives on 14th January 2016 at 3PM, TRAI will take into account all relevant responses that seek to answer the questions raised in the Consultation Paper that you have also made available to TRAI in a pen-drive on the same day”.
TRAI is planning to hold an open house discussion on January 21 to thrash out the issue of differential data pricing.
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On the other hand, the Net Neutrality campaigners have submitted 4.84 lakh comments through forums like Save the Internet. Over 1 million people wrote to TRAI, the country’s Telecom and internet regulator, to share their thoughts on the subject during the comment period last spring. TRAI says they will also keep in mind the comments Facebook has submitted as a stakeholder in the whole debate. Responses to the document mostly saw telecom operators in favor of separate rates for different services, while activists were firmly against such a system. However, Facebook is one of those select few Internet companies that have come out with its support for differential pricing of data.
