Facebook and BSNL have entered a partnership to create 100 WiFi hotspots in rural areas in India, reports ET. According to the report, Facebook will invest Rs 5 crore per year to buy bandwidth from BSNL in this joint venture, while infrastructure providers like Trimax and Quad Zen will provide equipment and fibre deployment. Facebook mentions that it plans to rollout the WiFi by December 31st this year, with consumers getting free Internet for the first half an hour. The network will be capable of handling an average of 2000 connected devices at the same time. However, it’s not clear how much consumers will be charged past the free period. The initiative will start off with 100 villages, with Rs 5 lac spent per year per site for buying bandwidth from BSNL. As of now, the initiative claims to be present in 25 villages under the pilot programme in southern and western India. The report also mentions that the partnership is likely to be scaled up and extended from three years to five. Issues with Net Neutrality: Note that while Facebook mentions that users will get the first half hour for free, we wonder if the company will be tempted to offers its own services for free past that time, while charging for access to other services. This would be along the lines of Internet.org, or Free Basics, or whatever Facebook prefers to call it these days, and would resoundingly violate the principles on Net Neutrality. Also read: Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg…
