The Facebook campaign that didn’t work. Photo by author in Mumbai.
Facebook will need a Plan B in India.
As Backchannel predicted in our in-depth report last week, Indian regulators on Monday ruled telecom providers cannot charge different prices to access different internet sites and services in the country.
As a result, India becomes the first nation in the world to reject Facebook’s ambitious free internet program, a plan aimed at bringing millions of people in the developing world online that has also drawn fire from critics for creating an unfair playing field for online services.
The decision applies only to India, where Facebook has marketed subsidized data plans as “Free Basics.” But it sets the stage for potential future showdowns between Facebook and net neutrality advocates in more than 30 countries around the globe where Facebook has partnered with local telecoms to waive data costs when accessing its social media network and other select services.
Cheering the decision Monday were Indian net neutrality activists who waged a highly visible, grassroots fight to keep the web in the world’s second most populous country open to competition.
“This is a joy to read,” says Kiran Jonnalagadda, a volunteer with the net neutrality activist group SaveTheInternet.in. “Plain English and no roundaboutery.”
Facebook responded to the decision with a prepared statement: “Our goal with Free Basics is to bring more people online with an open, non-exclusive and free platform. While disappointed with the outcome, we will continue our efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the internet and the opportunities it brings.”
The decision had #NetNeutrality and #FreeBasics trending on Twitter Monday:
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With the ban, India now has stricter regulations on so-called differential pricing than the United States, where Verizon and T-mobiles have started offering their own video streaming services without charging the bandwidth against customers’ data plans.
“The United States is only waking up to the problem,” says Mishi Choudhary, the legal director of the New Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Center and also a volunteer with SaveTheInternet.in. “We are the biggest market [for mobiles subscribers], so it’s great we are leading the world in having a free and neutral internet for all. (‘Free’ as in ‘freedom,’ not in cost).”
“If the FCC wants to call us and ask us how we did it, we can tell them,” she continues. “TRAI [the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the regulators that released the ruling] has a lot to be proud of today.”
It’s unknown whether the telecom companies will appeal the decision. Choudhary says it appears many levels of the government had weighed in on the decision, which had initially been promised by the end of January. “Many parts of the government were involved, so my feeling is the telcos will see what options are open to them.”
You can read the full decision below:
[How India Pierced Facebook's Free Internet Program - Backchannel
*The inside story of Mark Zuckerberg's attempt to gift data to a skeptical subcontinent. If you wanted to get a glimpse…*backchannel.com](https://backchannel.com/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-internet-program-6ae3f9ffd1b4#.8hzmzqgy7 "https://backchannel.com/how-india-pierced-facebook-s-free-internet-program-6ae3f9ffd1b4#.8hzmzqgy7")
