Differential pricing violates net neutrality: IAMAI

We did not want to ignore such a large number of comments and extended the deadline so that people can send proper responses – logical answers to the questions in the paper.

“It is being extended to January 7, primarily due to extension requests of COAI and AUSPI”, an official source said.

Facebook has launched a massive campaign in support of Free Basics, which some say violates the principle of net neutrality, the concept that all websites on the internet are treated equally.

Commenting on the paper, IAMAI president, Dr Subho Ray, stated, “In addition to being against net neutrality, the differential pricing models suggested by TRAI prima facie also violate the regulators own stated principles of intervening in pricing”.

Free Basics against net neutrality? The regulator has received about 16.5 lakh comments so far.

Rather than expressing views around “differential pricing for data services”, majority of the responses have centred around comments on Facebook’s “Free Basics” campaign for free internet for all.

The company’s Free Basics service lets people in some countries access Facebook and some other websites without charge.

Chairman R.S Sharma has moved to reiterate that the consultation paper was not in any way an ‘opinion paper’.

If access to Facebook (and certain services which would come via Facebook’s platform) is free, it surely becomes a step against Net Neutrality. However, a majority of these responses -around 14 lakh – did not provide any answer to the questions posed by the regulator, and supported Free Basics.

BEIRUT (AP) — A program that had been giving free basic Internet services to over three million Egyptians was shut down on Wednesday, social media site Facebook said.

The Internet blackouts in Sinai are meant to disrupt militant planning, but residents of the area say the cuts also hamper locals’ access to information and services.

In India, full page ads in major Indian newspapers and a personal piece by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a leading English daily defending Free Basics has taken the war over “free” or “selective” internet services for the poor and net neutrality into a new phase.

Earlier this month, Trai 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.

“Facebook will have access to all your apps’ contents”.

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.