Differential pricing for data services not acceptable: Prasad

IT Minister hails TRAI ruling barring differential pricing of data services

Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday hailed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s verdict on barring differential pricing of data services, saying plans including Facebook’s Free Basics were “plainly not acceptable”.

“We are expanding Digital India into the nook and corner of the country, and taking extraordinary steps to empower the people through technology, to create a knowledge economy. The very concept of differential pricing on data, whether it is Free Basics or any other mode, is plainly not acceptable,” he said.  

“Internet cannot be allowed to be monopoly of few. Trai’s order has enhanced India's image in the Net community world over and established its maturity,” he said. The government  respects the freedom of expression and discourse on social media and Internet.

"The view of our government from the beginning has been very clear, which I have also articulated in Parliament, that is Internet is one of the finest creations of human mind and it should not become the monopoly of few," Prasad said.

On Monday, Trai said telcos will be prohibited from offering different/discriminatory tariffs based on content, service, application or any other data which the user is accessing or transmitting on the internet. However, providing limited free data that enables users to access the entire internet will be allowed. In emergency situations, such as floods and earthquake, operators will be allowed to offer free data plans. This impacted Free Basics and Airtel Zero.

Facebook had led an aggressive campaign, the estimated cost for which was around Rs 300 crore, in favour of Free Basics, urging its users to send emails to Trai. The regulator lambasted Facebook for making its consultation paper into an “opinion poll”.

Trai had received highest ever comments — 2.4 million — on its paper, out of which almost 1.8 million were from Facebook users.  Free Basics had faced a lot of opposition from industry bodies including Nasscom, organisations fighting for net neutrality and even a number of start-ups, including Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.