13,800 villages and around 200 major cities of the state will get free wi-fi at all public places and free or cheap internet at homes and work places as the state government has initiated the process of laying one lakh km long fibre optic network in the state for broadband internet services. Gujarat government, which…
Mark Zuckerberg is in a spot of trouble in India after making a personal appeal in one of the country’s leading newspapers to allow free internet access. The op-ed has stirred controversy and drew questions from regulators, Bloomberg reports. Zuckerberg outlined his proposed Free Basics plan which allows customers to access Facebook and other services…
Most of you, by now, must have learnt that Google is going to kick off its free WiFi service at railway stations in India from January next year – with a goal to provide services at 100 stations by end of 2016, but there still are a few things that is not widely known about…
Even as Facebook and net neutrality activists pitch in their best on the last day of TRAI consultation process over differential pricing and net neutrality, pressure is building on TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) to exercise caution and even dismiss Facebook’s submission to the regulator. TRAI’s decision based on this and previous rounds of…
A battle that could decide the future of the internet in India is being fought online, between telecom users and operators. In less than a week, more than 800,000 Indians have sent emails to India’s telecom regulator, demanding a free and fair internet. Activists set up websites like netneutrality.in and savetheinternet.in. A video on net…
There is a rather vociferous debate in India around the interpretation of net-neutrality. And it all started after popular social networking company Facebook rolled out a massive campaign across media, urging people to support its Free Basics platform. The company’s marketing spiel included full page advertisements in almost all major national and regional newspapers in…
Facebook’s troubled Free Basics Internet program in India has suffered a setback after the Indian telecom regulator stepped in and demanded a halt. Essentially, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asked Facebook’s India mobile partner (Reliance Communications) to put the Free Basics service on hold. Net Neutrality “As directed by TRAI, the commercial launch…
After two and a half years of technical analysis and discussions, six months of deliberations among all stakeholders, and intense negotiations at the United Nations, at three o’clock in the morning on December 12, 2015, the talented co-facilitators from the United Arab Emirates and Latvia dropped the gavel on the outcome document for the ten-year…
Top Internet and digital firms such as Facebook, Google and homegrown Paytm were part of a brainstorming session on Wednesday to discuss the latest consultation paper by the telecom regulator on net neutrality. The meeting, organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) for its member companies, comes ahead of the December 30…
Telecom regulator Trai has received around six lakh comments on its consultation paper over ‘Differential Pricing for Data Services’ — one of the important issues under net neutrality principles. “Till Thursday, Trai received about 5,40,000 comments. These comments have suddenly come and mostly around Facebook’s Free Basics service. Today comments would have crossed six lakh,”…