Facebook has stopped offering its Free Basics service in India. This move comes after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) ruled earlier this week that no company can enter into any arrangement based on discriminatory pricing. "Goodbye everybody, I've got to go, Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth" #NetNeutrality #SaveTheInternet pic.twitter.com/JcTnvCSm8W — Nehmat Kaur (@Nehmat_K) February 11, 2016 Interestingly, an ET report mentions that Reliance Communications (RCOM) will continue offering Free Basics, but as a paid service to conform with TRAI’s ruling. Note that we had reported last month that Free Basics was also available as a non zero-rated service on mobile web on telecom operators outside of RCOM. However, it's not clear the service will continue to be supported as a paid service after Facebook backing out. Essentially, Free Basics being available with all telecom subscribers as a paid service, RCOM or not, kind of makes it like a directory service like Yahoo, from where one could, once upon a time, navigate through the world wide web. Facebook had been lobbying to get support for its Free Basics service in India since its launch. It launched multiple print, television, telephone and digital campaigns (see here and here), where it started placing ads in the middle of users’ timelines on mobile apps. When clicked, users were redirected to a Change.org petition which asked people to support Free Basics. Ruffling TRAI’s feathers: In December, the company’s latest campaign asked its Indian users to send an automated email…
