Reliance Communications to hold on deployment of Facebook’s Free Basics service

In a bid to address the issue of net neutrality and ponder over schemes like Facebook’s Free Basics, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked Reliance Communications to hold back its commercial deployment of Free Basics.

TRAI stated that the consultation process on differential pricing was still on and told Reliance Communications to put commercial deployment of the service on hold.

Free Basics, or Internet.org, is under criticism in India for violating net neutrality, which is free access to the internet.

Consultations are still on whether zero-rating plans by telecom service providers is discriminatory and anti-competitive.

A zero-rating plan means that content providers of a website will pay the telecom service provider, a charge so that the subscriber may browse the website free of charge.

"Save Free Basics" was also launched by Facebook recently, urging users in India to show support for "digital equality" in India.