TRAI Has Reliance Hit the Brakes on Free Basics

When The Wire contacted Facebook as to whether Free Basics was now suspended, a Facebook spokesperson issued a non-committal statement that doesn’t reference the zero-rated service’s current status.

The regulator has asked Reliance Communications, Facebook’s only telecom partner in India offering Free Basics service, to halt the service for now.

TRAI has recently issued a paper questioning zero-rating platforms and whether they are discriminatory.

It’s worth noting that Facebook had also run a campaign in May where it placed Internet.org ads in the middle of user timelines through the app. In August, Facebook said that more that 17 million people had expressed support for its Internet.org services via SMS and the Facebook page, but as this Quartz story indicates, the company did not provide an option to not support or vote down the services, essentially having forced its users to express that support.

It is my belief that the goals of access and network neutrality are incredibly important for India and the Trai must further them both rather than falling prey to the falsehood – as sought to be portrayed by some commercial interests – that one is opposed to the other.

Previously known as internet.org, Facebook’s Free Basics platform claims to offer free Internet services to Reliance’s subscribers in India, which is its second-largest user base after the US. Facebook essentially handholds users to send an email with the copy telling TRAI the benefits of the initiative. These comments have suddenly come and mostly around Facebook’s Free Basics service.

The reason for this is a new measure by TRAI, inviting comments on a consultation paper on net neutrality until December 31. “This campaign gives people the opportunity to support digital equality in India”. It helps those who can’t afford to pay for data, or who need a little help getting started online.

On December 7, RCom replied that it hasn’t yet commercially launched the services, but the person said Wednesday that the mobile phone operator was yet to submit the details.

Facebook has been actively lobbying to keep Free Basics alive in India, as the government’s decision to allow or ban it will likely have an effect on its future in other countries where it’s available. With 1 billion Indian people not yet connected, shutting down Free Basics would hurt our country’s most vulnerable people. With Facebook using its notifications feature to push its message out, it’s generated around 600,000 “Save Free Basics in India” petition emails to the regulator.

Net Neutrality is a concept which says that internet service providers should be able to access all the content and applications on the web regardless of the source, without promoting or blocking any particular website.