Kirthiga Reddy (MD, Facebook India) and Rajan Anandan (MD, Google India) Google India has joined the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), a telecom industry body currently lobbying strongly against Net Neutrality. Google has confirmed to MediaNama that it has joined COAI, but it's Country Head for Policy, Chetan Krishnaswamy, was not been available for an interview. Google has also not responded to queries mailed last week regarding its reasons for joining COAI, and its stand on Net Neutrality. The context of our questions Question 1. Why has Google joined COAI? At a global level, Google isn't a member of the GSMA, so why has it joined a telecom industry association in India? This is in context of Facebook being a member of both GSMA and COAI. Question 2. What benefits does Google get by joining an industry association where its core membership is only available to telecom licensees? Both Facebook and Google are now members of the COAI. In August 2014, Ankhi Das, Head of Public Policy for Facebook India, had spoken with MediaNama about the company's reasons for joining the COAI, but took a stand against violation of Net Neutrality. Since then, Facebook has announced Internet.org for India, which, with Zero Rating, would violate Net Neutrality. Facebook has also declined to comment on our questions regarding whether it knew of COAI's letter against Whatsapp (a company that Facebook owns) to the telecom regulator TRAI. Also, note that Facebook is also a member of the GSM Association, and this somewhat…
