wordpress blog stats
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

TRAI asks Reliance Communications to pause Free Basics: report

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has supposedly asked Reliance Communications (RCOM) to stop providing Free Basics, Facebook’s net neutrality violating platform, temporarily, and asked it to give TRAI a compliance report stating that the service has been stopped, reports ET. The publication added that RCOM had received this notice from TRAI two weeks ago. When contacted, Facebook replied with an unrelated and boilerplate response saying: “We are committed to Free Basics and to working with Reliance and the relevant authorities to help people in India get connected.” MediaNama has also written to  RCOM  for further details and will update this once we hear from them. As of now, the TRAI is yet to take a stand on net neutrality and zero rating in the country, and is debating whether telecom operators should be allowed to have differential pricing for different content. The ET report also states that RCOM is yet to pull the service off of its platform, giving its subscribers the Free Basics login screen. However, readers should note that Medianama was unable to verify this claim independently. Facebook started rolling out Internet.org in India in February this year with the mission to become a gateway to the internet by providing certain free services. This plan was developed especially for developing countries where the internet penetration and awareness is low. The next month, Sunil Mittal, Bharti Airtel’s chief, called out the service as a boon only to Facebook, and not philanthropy given its limited scope of access. Facebook’s email campaign:…

Please subscribe/login to read the full story.
Written By

I'm a MediaNama alumna from 2015-16 (remember TinyOwl?) now back to cover e-services like food and grocery delivery, app based transport and policies, platforms and media in India.

Free Reads

News

With GPS in every car, India's toll collection is going high-tech.

News

Google is currently undergoing the necessary procedures for the leasehold land, which is presently under the ownership of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation.

News

The pilot project for which is being launched in 19 cities this year, with a plan to launch a full-fledged rollout next year.

MediaNama’s mission is to help build a digital ecosystem which is open, fair, global and competitive.

Views

News

NPCI CEO Dilip Asbe recently said that what is not written in regulations is a no-go for fintech entities. But following this advice could...

News

Notably, Indus Appstore will allow app developers to use third-party billing systems for in-app billing without having to pay any commission to Indus, a...

News

The existing commission-based model, which companies like Uber and Ola have used for a long time and still stick to, has received criticism from...

News

Factors like Indus not charging developers any commission for in-app payments and antitrust orders issued by India's competition regulator against Google could contribute to...

News

Is open-sourcing of AI, and the use cases that come with it, a good starting point to discuss the responsibility and liability of AI?...

You May Also Like

News

Google has released a Google Travel Trends Report which states that branded budget hotel search queries grew 179% year over year (YOY) in India, in...

Advert

135 job openings in over 60 companies are listed at our free Digital and Mobile Job Board: If you’re looking for a job, or...

News

By Aroon Deep and Aditya Chunduru You’re reading it here first: Twitter has complied with government requests to censor 52 tweets that mostly criticised...

News

Rajesh Kumar* doesn’t have many enemies in life. But, Uber, for which he drives a cab everyday, is starting to look like one, he...

MediaNama is the premier source of information and analysis on Technology Policy in India. More about MediaNama, and contact information, here.

© 2008-2021 Mixed Bag Media Pvt. Ltd. Developed By PixelVJ

Subscribe to our daily newsletter
Name:*
Your email address:*
*
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

© 2008-2021 Mixed Bag Media Pvt. Ltd. Developed By PixelVJ