Facebook’s troubled Free Basics Internet program in India has suffered a setback after the Indian telecom regulator stepped in and demanded a halt. Essentially, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asked Facebook’s India mobile partner (Reliance Communications) to put the Free Basics service on hold. Net Neutrality “As directed by TRAI, the commercial launch…
After two and a half years of technical analysis and discussions, six months of deliberations among all stakeholders, and intense negotiations at the United Nations, at three o’clock in the morning on December 12, 2015, the talented co-facilitators from the United Arab Emirates and Latvia dropped the gavel on the outcome document for the ten-year…
Top Internet and digital firms such as Facebook, Google and homegrown Paytm were part of a brainstorming session on Wednesday to discuss the latest consultation paper by the telecom regulator on net neutrality. The meeting, organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) for its member companies, comes ahead of the December 30…
Telecom regulator Trai has received around six lakh comments on its consultation paper over ‘Differential Pricing for Data Services’ — one of the important issues under net neutrality principles. “Till Thursday, Trai received about 5,40,000 comments. These comments have suddenly come and mostly around Facebook’s Free Basics service. Today comments would have crossed six lakh,”…
Despite their obvious attempts to activate communal fault lines on various social media platforms, hardcore Hindutva right-wingers are not known to back up their verbal attacks with physical assault. In that sense, Bajrang Dal activist Bhuvith Shetty, the 24-year-old face behind the Twitter handle @garudapurana, is an exception — he has been vicious online and…
Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik says while he believes that the intentions behind Facebook’s Free Basics are noble, there are obvious concerns around net neutrality and the project doesn’t solve the basic problem of connectivity. “[Free Basics] doesn’t solve the problem of connectivity,” says Pramanik, ostensibly referring to the fact that you need to be…
Facebook went on the offensive Wednesday in an escalating row with Indian authorities over a controversial initiative which the social network says is aimed at widening online access in the developing world. The social media giant took out billboards and full-page newspaper adverts and sent SMSs to defend its Free Basics service, which offers people…