Facebook ups the ante on net neutrality

New Delhi: Caught in a raging debate over net neutrality, social media giant Facebook has said a variety of models are needed to bring a billion people online while defending its Free Basics initiative.

Earlier this month, telecom regulator Trai has asked Reliance Communications to keep services of Facebook’s free Internet platform, Free Basics, in abeyance, till the issue on differential pricing is sorted out.

Defending its project in a post on Internet.org, the firm said “we need to be practical and make sure programs are deployed in a fair and transparent way”. The Internet.org project was recently renamed as Free Basics and offers free access to a set of websites and services with the objective of introducing Internet.

Facebook cited web links of news reports of Aircel’s plan to provide free Internet to all its subscribers and Mozilla Foundation’s suggestions of equal rating. “Two of the services mentioned haven’t even rolled out yet so it’s too early to call them successful,” the company said. Aircel, however, has partially rolled out its free Internet services in some parts of the country.

Facebook also questioned Gigato mobile app, which credits Internet data consumed for accessing website on its platform and gets paid from websites that have partnered with it. “The third (Gigato) requires applications to pay to be featured, which should be a huge concern for net neutrality activists and is potentially damaging to startups who can’t afford to be part of the programme,” Facebook said. Facebook said giving away free megabytes only helps existing Internet users.