Facebook’s free internet program shuts down in Egypt

One way it’s doing that is through Free Basics, where it provides free access to a select group of Internet services and websites. 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.

Facebook’s aggressive Free Basics campaign backfired on Thursday with the telecom regulator TRAI asking respondents to its “Net Neutrality” consultation paper to comment on specific issues rather than following a template provided by the social media giant. Egyptian officials haven’t said why they halted the program, but critics in India say it violates net neutrality.

In a letter drafted to the government watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, nine heads of startups including Paytm and Zomato urged the TRAI to ensure that Internet access was allowed but without differential pricing.

TRAI, which has already ordered Free Basics to be put on hold in India, is now likely to finalise views on the issue of Net Neutrality by January-end. “How supporting Free Basics help me (TRAI) in answering the questions which we had asked for ‘whether differential pricing should be permitted or not”, Sharma said.

The program, which was launched in over 35 developing countries across the globe, offers a pared-down web service for mobile phones, as well as access to the social network of the company and its messaging services, without any charge.

The regulator has received 381,000 comments from people claiming to be supporters of net neutrality.

“Free Basics is at risk of being banned, slowing progress towards digital equality in India”, said an advertisement published in Mumbai newspapers on Wednesday, urging Internet users to support the initiative.

Earlier this month, Trai had asked Reliance Communications to keep Free Basics in abeyance till the issue on differential pricing is sorted out.