Intenet and Mobile Association of India sys free infrastucture based service like Google providing free net access at railway stations would help in improving accessibility without violating net neutrality
The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in its internal meeting on differential pricing came up with two suggestions for innovative services that would connect the unconnected through internet without violating net neutrality.
Subho Ray, president of IAMAI, said the internet and mobile body members, including tech giants like Google, Facebook, Paytm and others, felt free infrastructure-based and corporate social responsibility (CSR)-linked services would work well in pushing internet penetration up, without disturbing its non-discriminatory nature.
These suggestions were taken for Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) consultation paper on differential pricing. Ray said IAMAI would submit its feedback by December 29. "We are fine-tuning these suggestions and we will submit them by December 29, most probably," said Ray.
The infrastructure-based service being recommended by IAMAI is similar to what Google is doing by providing free wi-fi connectivity at railway stations for some time without restricting access to websites.
"It (infrastructure-based service) just gives you a connection and you can surf any website that you want to. It can be free for half an hour, as Google is trying to do, but as long as access is completely open, it would not violate net neutrality," said Ray.
The other service that the internet body would be recommending is linked to CSR norm in the Companies Act, 2013, where some of portion of a company's earning have to be earmarked for this purpose. The corporates could be encouraged to provide free and open internet services to employees as part of their CSR.
"That could really help in giving internet access to unconnected people. It will help not just internet companies but traditional ones," he said. These suggestions of internet association is in response to Trai's query on; if differential pricing is violating the net neutrality, what other innovative services can you suggest to connect people?
According to a source, who was part of the meeting, Facebook did not defend its Free Basics or Internet.org, a service it was looking to launch through a tie-up with Reliance Communication (RCom) but has put it on hold after a Trai directive.
"Everybody (at the meeting) was on same page (on differential pricing on internet). They (Facebook) support the infrastructure-based service for connecting the unconnected. Outside Free Basics, they (Facebook) are doing a lot of work (for providing internet access to unconnected)," said the source.
Meanwhile, SaveTheInternet.in, an organisation fighting for net neutrality, intensified has its protest against Facebook's Free Basics and tried to raise awareness and garner support from internet users.
"There are new villains in this story. Earlier, it was the telecom operators who wanted the right to charge you more for services like WhatsApp, Hike or Skype. Now we have global corporations who don't mind such discrimination as long as their services are available cheaper or free. Facebook in particular has spent crores on advertising how they will provide free Internet to everyone in India, except it is restricted to websites that they allow in their app. If they're allowed to do this, others will do it too. Airtel Zero is a similar scheme," wrote SaveTheInternet.in in email shot off by it to internet users.
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