India Rejects Facebook’s Zero-Rating “Free Basics” Program on Net Neutrality Grounds

In 2015, Facebook announced with some fanfare the rollout of its “Free Basics” service in India. Partnering with a local wireless operator, customers that downloaded the Free Basics app onto their smartphones could use the service without incurring data usage charges.

Less than six months later, the India regulator (the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)), “effectively banned” the service, in a Decision that finds that the Free Basics offering violates “net neutrality” principles.

This article reviews the Free Basics program and the TRAI’s Decision to reject it.