As Facebook’s FB ‘Free Basics’ versus net neutrality war rages in India, Mark Zuckerberg backed his initiative through an article published yesterday in the Times of India.
The issue had initially surfaced when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted net neutrality earlier this year. Net neutrality vouches for an open-Internet atmosphere, which will prohibit ISPs, especially telecom and cable TV operators, from discriminating against applications.
Thereafter, a number of communication providers and prime players in other media related sectors opposed Facebook’s Internet.org project, which was designed to provide free access to Internet in regions where people cannot afford it. Free Basics would provide access to a select few apps, which has been the prime issue for net neutrality advocates. According to them, this would give the social media giant significant control over what sites and apps people access.
Last week, the Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) asked Facebook’s operator partner, Reliance Communications to “put on hold” the Free Basics services in the country for the time being.
Now, as the end of a public consultation period (on Net Neutrality) approaches, Zuckerberg is giving his all to defend his stance. He said “This isn’t about Facebook’s commercial interests – there aren’t even any ads in the version of Facebook in Free Basics. If people lose access to free basic services, they will simply lose access to the opportunities offered by the internet today.”
Facebook has even begun a marketing campaign in the country to find public support for its Free Basics initiative.
A prime reason for all this effort is the scope for growth in India. The country with a population of over 1.2 billion has only about 354 million Internet users (as per Sep 2015 data). Even with low Internet penetration, India is already the second largest market for this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company just after the U.S.
Apart from Facebook, other tech behemoths that have recently strengthened their presence in the country include Twitter TWTR, Alphabet’s GOOGL Google and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, among others.
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