Facebook fights for free Internet in India

Egypt became the second country after India to shut down the controversial Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) sponsored free limited internet access service, after a government permit was not renewed.

Facebook’s Free Basics program was launched with Etisalat Egypt. The service, which has attracted much controversy, provides users with free access to select websites on mobile phones.

Earlier this month, telecom regulator Trai has asked Reliance Communications to keep services of Facebook’s free Internet platform, Free Basics, in abeyance, till the issue on differential pricing is sorted out. Only 252 million of India’s 1.3 billion people have Internet access, making it a growth market for firms including Google and Facebook.

The industry group said also that even the pricing models suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in a discussion paper on differential pricing for data services contravene the watchdog’s own stated principles of being non-discriminatory, transparent, non-predatory, and non-misleading.

The suspension of the service, which an Egyptian telecom official told Reuters was not related to security concerns, comes just days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Arab Spring uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. The comments did not answer the questions asked by the regulator.

Out of the 37 countries questioning the rationality of the service, India has been the most vocal. The mode however as per Free Basics is to provide apps, and has been drawn out as a subsidiary of the original Internet.Org initiative.

He, however, did not elaborate if the people did not reply to Trai, the comments on Free Basics would be termed invalid.

Critics say that by controlling which services are part of Free Basics, Facebook will determine the content that the poorest Internet users get to see.

“We, therefore, urge that the TRAI should support net neutrality in its strongest form, and thoroughly reject Facebook’s “free basics” proposal”. “We have done a preliminary analysis of the comments and we have found that a large percentage of these comments are about supporting a specific product called Free Basics”, RS Sharma, Chairman, TRAI, said.

And now Facebook has confirmed that in a statement to the Associated Press that Free Basics has also been suspended in Egypt. Mahesh Murthy, a Mumbai venture capitalist and net neutrality activist, has described it as “digital apartheid”.