Telecom regulator wants to give consumers free internet now

After rejecting Facebook’s Free Basics and Airte; Zero, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is now mulling to give free internet to consumers under the net neutrality framework.

The TRAI, in its consultation paper, stated that this idea is still being explored.

"The consultation paper (on free data) is being issued to explore model(s) that could achieve benefits of offering free data while avoiding the ingenuity that the differential tariff regulation is meant to prevent," the regulator said in the consultation paper.

"We're a little surprised that this is the consultation paper that has been released because it only concerns means of making data available for free. It appears to be a follow-up from the last consultation, and not what we were expecting," said SavetheInternet volunteer Nikhil Pahwa.

TRAI, in the first model, stated that "allowing service providers to perform what effectively amounts to a gate-keeping function, might potentially empower TSPs (telecom service providers) to select certain content providers at the disadvantage of others, thereby adversely affecting public interest and creating non-level playing field".

In the second model, it stated, “there is a need to enable smaller entrepreneurs to flourish without permitting gate-keeping function in the hands of TSPs and also to give consumers more choices for accessing the Internet".

The last date for comments for this paper is June 16 and that of counter-comments is June 30.