Trai extends deadline for comments on net neutrality

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.

India has become a battleground over the right to unrestricted Internet access, with local tech start-ups joining the front line against Facebook Inc (FB.O) founder Mark Zuckerberg and his plan to roll out free Internet to the country’s masses. It has run into trouble in India, where activists allege the program violates network neutrality, the principle that all Internet sites should be equally accessible.

This has, therefore, prompted TRAI to extend the deadline of receiving the comments on its Consultation Paper to January 7, instead of December 30 and review of the comments to January 14 from January 7.

The group of executives in its letter said that differential pricing for access to Internet would lead to just a few players such as Facebook with the Free Basic platform playing the role of gatekeepers. Furthermore, other countries might follow in India’s footsteps and decide to review the service in their respective territories. His argument in support of the program is based on a recent research by Deloitte, which claims that for every, ten who get connected to the Web, one is lifted from poverty.

Other critics say Zuckerberg’s seemingly charitable quest is nothing more than a ploy to expand Facebook into the huge untapped market of India.

Facebook has responded by promising strict data encryption and saying it will not bar any apps or developers from joining the Free Basics suite if they meet its technical requirements. In essence, what is being asked for by anti-Free Basics voices is that the government use clauses in the telecom licence agreement that permit arbitrary state action, and that it use these clauses in order to restrict consumer choice. It was suspended last week on the orders of, RS Sharma, the chairman of TRAI. It is for this reason that it hold the most important piece to Zuckerberg Free Basic push.

Facebook’s Egypt partner, telecom carrier Etisalat Egypt, made Free Basics available in Egypt two months ago. “It has also been decided that no request for any further extension of time for submission of comments/counter comments shall be entertained”, TRAI said.