TRAI mulls free internet service within net neutrality framework

Telecom regulator TRAI proposed exploring models to give consumers free Internet service within the Net neutrality framework, months after barring platforms like Facebooks Free Basics and Airtel Zero under its differential pricing rule. Telecom regulator TRAI proposed exploring models to give consumers free Internet service within the Net neutrality framework, months after barring platforms like Facebook’s Free Basics and Airtel Zero under its differential pricing rule. In the first model, the regulator noted that “allowing service providers to perform what effectively amounts to a gate-keeping function, might potentially empower TSPs 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 of providing free data to all consumers, irrespective of the telecom network, “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”.