Facebook Criticized in India Over Free Limited Internet
January 21 2016 - 9:12PM
Dow Jones News
By Sean McLain
NEW DELHI--Hundreds of people showed up at an auditorium in
India's capital on Thursday for a passionate hourslong debate about
whether Facebook Inc. and others are undermining freedom of the
Internet by offering free services that give people limited access
to the Web.
Representatives of India's cellular-service operators joined
net-neutrality activists, startup executives and regular Internet
users for an open-house discussion hosted by the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India. The session centered on the importance of net
neutrality, a principle that holds that the Internet is a public
good and all data on it should be treated equally.
Discussion of the concept, which was little-known in India until
last year, has exploded into a full-blown war of words between some
net-neutrality advocates and supporters of Facebook.
Since last year, Facebook, along with India's fourth-largest
telecommunications company, Reliance Communications Ltd., has been
offering what it calls Free Basics, an online service that allows
free access to a limited selection of websites.
The social-media giant has been teaming up with cellular
companies in many emerging markets to offer Free Basics as an
introductory sample of what the Internet has to offer. If users
stay on the free service they aren't charged data fees while
surfing.
Facebook's high-profile attempt to offer the service, which
included an extensive ad campaign and a visit to India by founder
Mark Zuckerberg, triggered a growing backlash from people who say
the service violated net neutrality.
Critics of Free Basics and similar services say companies are
trying to restrict access to just a portion of the Internet.
Facebook said it supports net neutrality and its program is
designed to create new Internet users and doesn't violate net
neutrality.
As the debate has heated up recently, the TRAI told Facebook to
stop offering the service so regulators could gather more opinions
about how regulations should apply.
The discussion on Thursday was the penultimate step in the
Indian regulator's weekslong decision-making process. In its call
for opinions about what should happen, it has received more than
1.5 million written responses. The regulator was overwhelmed by the
"responses on responses, " said R.S. Sharma, chairman of the
authority.
A decision by the regulator is expected before the end of this
month.
In the TRAI auditorium, a crowd of corporate executives, startup
founders and young software coders were each given a few minutes to
present their arguments to a panel of officials seated onstage.
More than 30 people spoke; many took aim at Facebook.
Allowing Facebook's Free Basics to operate in India would
"destroy the innovative tapestry of this country once and for all,"
said Pulak Bagchi, head of legal and regulatory affairs at Star
TV's India unit. Star TV is owned by 21st Century Fox, which was
part of the same company as Wall Street Journal owner News Corp
until mid-2013.
If they are allowed to, Internet-service providers would pick
and choose which services users could access for free, putting
others at a competitive disadvantage, Mr. Bagchi said.
Facebook's representative, who identified herself only by her
first name, Deepali, reasserted the company's position that itssaid
the service wasn't created to try to control or restrict the
Internet. She asked the regulator to allow "innovative models that
expand access and bring more people online, such as Free
Basics."
Indian cellular- and broadband-service providers said allowing
some services free is part of healthy competition, which is good
for consumers.
Indian consumers have benefited from price competition on
everything from airfares to pizza, and competitive price cutting on
the cost of making a phone call has put India's cellular rates
among the least expensive in the world. Others noted that
telecommunications companies are public utilities. They can set the
price for their services, but they shouldn't be allowed to decide
how consumers use it.
"The TRAI allowed differential pricing for voice [calls], and
voice tariffs really crashed," said Amit Mathur, a vice president
at Reliance Communications, referring to the price competition
allowed early in the century. Permitting companies to compete on
cost for Internet services would drive down prices in a similar
way, he said.
A phone company restricting where people can surf on their
smartphones would be such as the companies telling people which
businesses they are allowed to call on their phones.
Write to Sean McLain at sean.mclain@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 21, 2016 20:57 ET (01:57 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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