Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has spelled doom for Facebook’s Free Basics campaign by banning it from India. So much for all the voiced opinions in the last couple of weeks.
Though this is big setback for Internet.org, Mark Zuckerberg refuses to let it douse his spirits. In a post he put up earlier today, he says,
“Our work with Internet.org around the world has already improved many people’s lives. More than 19 million people in 38 countries have been connected through our different programs. Connecting India is an important goal we won’t give up on, because more than a billion people in India don’t have access to the [...]
The Telecom Regulatory Athority of India (TRAI), today has announced final guidelines on differential pricing. Ruling heavily in favour of Net Neutrality, TRAI has said, ” No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content”
The telecom sector regulator with this ruling has barred differential pricing of data products, which effectively will mean that controversial zero-rating ideas such as Facebook’s Free Basics won’t be allowed to kick-off in the country.
TRAI also looks increasingly likely to disallow subsidised data packages already on offer which allow services, such as Whatsapp or [...]
In what will come as welcome news to millions of netizens across the country, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) in its latest communication to Facebook, has in rather stern words intimated to the company that it does not approve of the manner in which Facebook is misrepresenting the results of its ‘support Free Basics’ campaign, and what it seems to be suggesting is a subtle attempt at nudging the voice of the people out of the decision-making equation.
This letter from the desk of TRAI’s joint advisor K.V Sebastian, pulls up Facebook for the way it has conducted itself through the campaign to save Free Basics from being shut down. TRAI has [...]
Last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) raised the issue of net neutrality and, needless to say, it sparked off a major debate. This eventually led TRAI to invite public comments on the differential pricing of net services and the last date to submit counter-comments was 14th January.
Of the total 24 million applications submitted over TRAI’s paper on the differential pricing of data, a significant aspect of net neutrality, there were only 21 counter-comments submitted by individuals or organisations.
List of telecom operators that countered the proposal of keeping net services neutral of discriminatory pricing include Airtel, Vodafone, Idea [...]
According to various news reports, Google could be lobbying against net neutrality in India, as it has been asking the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) to support zero rating plans.
The zero rating plans allow people to use certain web services for free, this basically also allows telecom operators to selectively offer its users access to certain applications/websites without incurring any data charges. Therefore, any telecom company that signs up for this plan would have to pay the telecom provider a large sum of money in order to make their apps and services free for users.
Early this year, Airtel had decided to offer its own Airtel Zero plan [...]
BJP said the internet is a crucial part of one’s life, and should be governed very carefully without the need to compromise the freedom of speech and expression.
Speaking at an Internet governance event organised by industry chamber Assocham, BJP National Spokesman, Sambit Patra said,
Internet is extremely important and since it is extremely important for governance also, because every person is within the ambit of government, Internet has to be governed in a way that does not take away basic essence of Internet which is freedom of speech and expression.
He also stated that the government had formed a community along with TRAI on Net Neutrality. He [...]
While the hue and cry over Airtel’s controversial ‘Airtel Zero’ was justified, we need to be reminded that there are several other players in the market working on a similar plan.
Here’s why we had a problem with Airtel Zero – it was a new platform that let companies buy data to offer their apps to consumers for free. It allowed users to access these apps without incurring data charges. This was seen as a direct violation of net neutrality as it gave priority access to some apps over others.
Now let’s have a look at Reliance’s [...]
The much heated issue of Net Neutrality now has the Centre’s support. The government hasn’t come out with a final verdict on the same, but is committed to keeping the Intenet open and evenly accessible to everyone. Standing up in support of free internet, Telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in a firm voice said that the practices of blocking and deliberately slowing down or speeding up of lawful content on web should not be allowed.
While responding to a discussion on Net Neutrality in Rajya Sabha, Prasad commented –
Government stands for ensuring [...]
Yesterday the deadline to cast a vote for saving the internet ended. Though we have to wait for the final take of the government on the issue, Neutral Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) has given its answer. The body under IT ministry said that it fully backs Net Neutrality and any move to bundle apps would go against the concept of Internet.
NIXI made a remark –
National Internet Exchange of India as the neutral exchange in the country, strongly supports Neutrality of the Internet which is the only way forward to make the Internet open, free and innovative.
The heated debate over Net Neutrality doesn’t seem to end up anytime soon. In response to the online protest initiated by TRAI, the independent telecommunications authority received over 1.5 lakh e-mails within two days. Now, the protest has touched one million mark.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has received more than one million emails in support of Net Neutrality from the citizens of India. The statement was made by a voluntary group managing the ‘Save the Internet’ program. The figures are of until yesterday, and the emails are continuously flooding TRAI’s Inbox.
An unbiased internet is a right of all and should not be a distinctive property limited to a privileged few. For the Internet to be a free entity is extremely important for regular internet users, as it is the equally essential for the budding businesses to grow. Start-up firms, who are launching themselves to gain recognition using the internet, need a non-discriminatory medium to establish themselves. For them, an unbiased platform both on the basis of cost and speed is a crucial need.
A group of tech start-ups has pushed its concern over the lack of Net Neutrality. The emerging companies wrote an open letter to PM [...]
In the past few weeks, Airtel has managed to unite the online world against it. It did so, by launching the infamous Airtel Zero plan, which is a clear violation of net neutrality. Earlier today, Flipkart, paying heed to the online negativity gathered, announced that it had made the wise decision of backing out of the Airtel Zero plan.
Read what Airtel has to say below:
Airtel fully supports the concept of Net Neutrality. There have been some misconceptions about our toll free data platform – Airtel Zero. It is a not a tariff proposition but is an open marketing platform that
1. Allows any application or content provider to offer their service on a toll free [...]
