TRAI order may inspire others

India's decision to effectively ban Facebook's pared-back free Internet service is a major blow to the social network's plans, and may prompt other regulators to demand equal online access for their users.

Facebook will have to reconsider its approach in the light of India's new rules preventing Internet service providers from having different pricing policies for accessing different parts of the Web, analysts said.

“This is a major setback for Facebook,” said Naveen Menon, lead analyst at A.T. Kearney in Singapore. “Not only because India was expected to be such a critical piece of the overall Internet.org success story, but more so because it has potential dangerous knock-on effects for the universal access initiative in other markets.”

Internet.org is Facebook's umbrella initiative to bring Internet access to the unconnected. Part of that is the Free Basics program, which Facebook has launched in around three dozen emerging countries. The service has been criticized outside India, too, with Facebook accused of infringing the principle of net neutrality - the concept that all websites and data on the Internet be treated equally.

Critics and Internet activists argue that allowing free access to a select few apps and Web services disadvantages small content providers and start-ups that don't participate.

Ram Sevak Sharma, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), told Reuters he hoped its ruling would clarify ambiguity about net neutrality and “that India has set the record straight that will be followed [the] world over.”

In Facebook posts after Monday's ruling, founder Mark Zuckerberg said Free Basics was just one part of a larger initiative that includes solar-powered planes, satellites and lasers, and pairing with local entrepreneurs to provide wireless hotspots.

Expanding these approaches with or without the operators was one option for Facebook now, as well as legal workarounds where the service is repackaged, said Martin Geddes, a UK-based telecoms consultant.

Facebook could also challenge the ruling in the courts, but a more likely move, said Marc Einstein, Asia-Pacific director at Frost and Sullivan, would be to sit down with the TRAI “to try to come up with a solution that's deemed a little more neutral.”

Facebook executives were not immediately available for comment, but India-born Karthik Naralasetty, whose blood donor matching service Socialblood is available in more than 20 countries via Free Basics, said Facebook was already re-thinking its approach.

“Facebook is re-thinking what it's doing, coming up with better plans,” he said by telephone. “Communications will have to improve. They have to get the buy-in of different governments before they go into those countries.”

Mark Zuckerberg disappointed, but won’t give up on internet.org Expressing disappointment on India's decision on net neutrality, Facebook founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg has said he is committed to keep working to break down connectivity barriers in India and around the world.

“Internet.org has many initiatives, and we will keep working until everyone has access to the internet,” Zuckerberg said in a post on the Facebook yesterday, his first reaction to the ruling of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on net neutrality.. Backing Net neutrality, telecom watchdog TRAI yesterday barred operators from charging different rates for Internet access based on content, dealing a blow to Facebook's controversial Free Basics and other such plans. Facebook's Free Basics plan came in from major criticism from experts who alleged that it curbed one's freedom to access the internet of their choice. “Today India's telecom regulator decided to restrict programmes that provide free access to data. This restricts one of Internet.org's initiatives, Free Basics, as well as programmes by other organisations that provide free access to data,” Zucerberg said.

“I want to personally communicate that we are committed to keep working to break down barriers to connectivity in India and around the world,” he said.

Zuckerberg claimed that Facebook's work with Internet.org around the world has already improved many people's lives.

"Connecting India is an important goal we won't give up on, because more than a billion people in India don't have access to the internet," Zuckerberg said.