week 8-14 Feb:
• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has barred telecom service providers from charging differential rates for data services, effectively prohibiting Facebook’s Free Basics and Airtel Zero platform by Airtel in their current form.
Some important highlights of the ruling:
1. No service provider can offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.
2. No service provider shall enter into any arrangement, agreement or contract, by whatever name called, with any person, natural or legal, that the effect of discriminatory tariffs for data services being offered or charged by the service provider for the purpose of evading the prohibition in this regulation.
3. Reduced tariff for accessing or providing emergency services, or at times of public emergency has been permitted.
4. Financial disincentives for contravention of the regulation have also been specified.
5. TRAI may review these regulations after a period of two years.
• TRAI said that the prohibition was necessary to keep the Internet open and non-discriminatory.
• It said that a fine of Rs. 50,000 would be levied per day, subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 lakh, for any violation of these regulations by the service providers. An exemption, however, has been made for offering emergency services.
• Ruling out case-by-case approval for plans that might be priced differently, the regulator said a clear policy should be formulated.
• The TRAI said tariff for data services could not vary on the basis of the website/application/ platform/ or type of content being accessed. For example, a consumer could not be charged differently based on whether she was browsing social media site A or B, or on whether she was watching streaming videos or shopping on the Internet, it added.
• It, however, said that to bring more users on the Internet, this prohibition would not apply to other forms of tariff differentiation that were entirely independent of content. “For instance, providing limited free data that enables user to access the entire Internet is not prohibited,” the TRAI said.
Disappointed Facebook:
• The regulator and Facebook have been at loggerheads over the issue with the authority terming the social networking giant’s attempt to lobby for its Free Basics initiative a “crude” attempt at turning the consultation over differential pricing of data services into an “orchestrated opinion poll” on Free Basics.
• Facebook had partnered with Reliance Communications in India to offer Free Basics service.
• However, the services were put in abeyance, post a TRAI order to this effect.
Reactions from various corners:
• While the move was cheered by Net Neutrality activists and industry bodies such as Nasscom and IAMAI, telecom operators, who had been pushing for allowing of differential tariff for data service, expressed disappointment saying the ruling would impact the Narendra Modi government’s ambitious Digital India initiative.
• Meanwhile, Net Neutrality activists see it as a positive indication for future regulations on issues such as regulation of over the top applications such as WhatsApp and Skype.