India’s telecom regulator said Monday that service providers cannot charge discriminatory prices for Internet services, a blow to Facebook’s global effort to provide low-cost Internet to developing countries. 
 
 Facebook’s “Free Basics” program provides a pared-down version of Facebook and weather and job listings to some 15 million mobile-phone users in 37 countries around the world. 
 
 When it debuted in India in April, however, Free Basics immediately ran afoul of Internet activists who said it violated the principle of “net neutrality,” which holds that consumers should be able to access the entire Internet unfettered by price or speed. 
 
 On Monday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India agreed, prohibiting data service providers from offering or charging different prices for data — even if it’s free. The Free Basics program has run into trouble elsewhere in the world recently — with Egypt banning it and Google clarifying that it pulled out of the application during a testing phase in Zambia. 
 
 [India, Egypt say no thanks to free Internet from Facebook] 
 
 In a statement, Facebook said that while the company was “disappointed with the outcome, we will continue our efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the Internet.” 
 
 In an interview before the ruling, Chris Daniels, Facebook’s vice president for Internet.org — the umbrella organization of the global effort — said India’s negative reaction has been “unique versus other markets we’ve seen. We’ve been welcomed with open arms in many countries.” 
 
 Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg launched the program to great fanfare in 2013, partnering with other international tech firms on a mission to connect the 4 billion people in the world without Internet access — which he says is a basic human right. 
 
 India has 300 million mobile Internet users but still has close to 1 billion people without proper Internet access. But it is second only to the United States in number of Facebook users, with 130 million, with vast expansion potential as Facebook works to increase its user base beyond the developed world. 
 
 Yet the Free Basics program was controversial from the start in India, where critics accused Facebook of creating a “walled garden” for poor users that allowed them access to only a portion of the web that Facebook controlled. 
 
 Dozens of well-known tech entrepreneurs, university professors and tech industry groups spoke out against it, saying that the curated app, with its handpicked weather, job and other listings, put India’s scrappy start-ups and software developers at a disadvantage. 
 
 On Monday, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder and creator of India’s payment application PayTM, applauded the regulator’s move. 
 
 He had been among the program’s fiercest critics, dubbing Free Basics “poor Internet for poor people” and comparing Facebook’s actions to that of British colonialists and their East India Co. 
 
 “India, Do u buy into this baby internet?” Sharma tweeted in December. “The East India company came with similar ‘charity’ to Indians a few years back!” 
 
 “In a country like India that’s just taking off, it’s important that there is an equal playground for every app developer,” he said in an interview. 
 
 In December, India’s regulator put out a position paper on differential pricing and asked for public comment on whether such programs were fair. 
 
 In response, Facebook launched a public relations blitz, with television and newspaper advertisements, billboards and an opinion piece by Zuckerberg in the Times of India in which he argued against criticism that the social-media giant was providing the service simply to expand its user base. 
 
 Facebook also engineered a prompt to users that sent “robo” letters of support for Free Basics to India’s telecommunications regulator. The regulator, flooded with form letters, was not amused. 
 
 Facebook’s behavior may not have helped its cause, some analysts said. 
 
 “Facebook went overboard with its propaganda [and] convinced ‘the powers that be’ that it cannot be trusted with mature stewardship of our information society,” said Sunil Abraham of the Center for Internet and Society in Bangalore. 
 
 Yet David Kirkpatrick, the author of “The Facebook Effect,” says that Zuckerberg is determined to see the program succeed. 
 
 “Facebook is relentless,” he said. “Zuckerberg has said from the beginning his goal is to make the world more open and connected. And that’s a phrase he continues to repeat 10 years later.” 
 
 The regulator had asked Facebook, and its local telecom partner, Reliance Communications, to suspend Free Basics’ operations during the public comment period. But the social-media giant and its partner appeared to flout the suspension order, with the program continuing to be operational on Reliance SIM cards. 
 
 A spokesman for Reliance earlier said that the applications was in “testing mode” and that it was not commercially promoting the product. 
 
 The regulatory body said Monday that anybody violating the order in the future will be subject to a fine of about $735 a day. It will return to review the policy in two years to see if it is effective. ||||| To connect a billion people, India must choose facts over fiction 
 
 In every society, there are certain basic services that are so important for people’s wellbeing that we expect everyone to be able to access them freely. 
 
 We have collections of free basic books. They’re called libraries. They don’t contain every book, but they still provide a world of good. 
 
 We have free basic healthcare. Public hospitals don’t offer every treatment, but they still save lives. 
 
 We have free basic education. Every child deserves to go to school. 
 
 And in the 21st century, everyone also deserves access to the tools and information that can help them to achieve all those other public services, and all their fundamental social and economic rights. 
 
 That’s why everyone also deserves access to free basic internet services. 
 
 We know that when people have access to the internet they also get access to jobs, education, healthcare, communication. We know that for every 10 people connected to the internet, roughly one is lifted out of poverty. We know that for India to make progress, more than 1 billion people need to be connected to the internet. 
 
 That’s not theory. That’s fact. 
 
 Another fact – when people have access to free basic internet services, these quickly overcome the digital divide. 
 
 Research shows that the biggest barriers to connecting people are affordability and awareness of the internet. Many people can’t afford to start using the internet. But even if they could, they don’t necessarily know how it can change their lives. 
 
 Over the last year Facebook has worked with mobile operators, app developers and civil society to overcome these barriers in India and more than 30 other countries. We launched Free Basics, a set of basic internet services for things like education, healthcare, jobs and communication that people can use without paying for data. 
 
 More than 35 operators have launched Free Basics and 15 million people have come online. And half the people who use Free Basics to go online for the first time pay to access the full internet within 30 days. 
 
 So the data is clear. Free Basics is a bridge to the full internet and digital equality. Data from more than five years of other programs that offer free access to Facebook, WhatsApp and other services shows the same. 
 
 If we accept that everyone deserves access to the internet, then we must surely support free basic internet services. That’s why more than 30 countries have recognized Free Basics as a program consistent with net neutrality and good for consumers. 
 
 Who could possibly be against this? 
 
 Surprisingly, over the last year there’s been a big debate about this in India. 
 
 Instead of wanting to give people access to some basic internet services for free, critics of the program continue to spread false claims – even if that means leaving behind a billion people. 
 
 Instead of recognizing the fact that Free Basics is opening up the whole internet, they continue to claim – falsely – that this will make the internet more like a walled garden. 
 
 Instead of welcoming Free Basics as an open platform that will partner with any telco, and allows any developer to offer services to people for free, they claim – falsely – that this will give people less choice. 
 
 Instead of recognizing that Free Basics fully respects net neutrality, they claim – falsely – the exact opposite. 
 
 A few months ago I learned about a farmer in Maharashtra called Ganesh. 
 
 Last year Ganesh started using Free Basics. He found weather information to prepare for monsoon season. He looked up commodity prices to get better deals. Now Ganesh is investing in new crops and livestock. 
 
 We just took another step towards connecting India. As of today, everyone in India nationwide can access free internet… Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, 23 November 2015 
 
 Critics of free basic internet services should remember that everything we’re doing is about serving people like Ganesh. 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. 
 
 Right now the TRAI is inviting the public to help decide whether free basic internet services should be offered in India. 
 
 For those who care about India’s future, it’s worth answering some questions to determine what is best for the unconnected in India. 
 
 What reason is there for denying people free access to vital services for communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming and women’s rights? 
 
 How does Ganesh being able to better tend his crops hurt the internet? 
 
 We’ve heard legitimate concerns in the past, and we’ve quickly addressed those. We’re open to other approaches and encourage innovation. But today this program is creating huge benefits for people and the entire internet ecosystem. There’s no valid basis for denying people the choice to use Free Basics, and that’s what thousands of people across India have chosen to tell TRAI over the last few weeks. 
 
 Choose facts over false claims. Everyone deserves access to the internet. Free basic internet services can help achieve this. Free Basics should stay to help achieve digital equality for India. 
 
 Also read: Nikhil Pahwa’s counterview on Free Basics and net neutrality 
 
 What is net neutrality and why it is important? ||||| Nobody ever said connecting the world would be easy. 
 
 Despite aggressive efforts to promote universal connectivity in India, Facebook just struck out. India’s telecom regulator has blocked the company’s Free Basics service as part of a ruling that supports net neutrality. The decision follows nearly a year of escalating conflict between Facebook and the country’s net neutrality activists, who argue Free Basics violates neutrality by favoring some services over others. It also undermines founder Mark Zuckerberg’s larger Internet.org efforts to bring the entire world online. 
 
 Still, it is not the end for Zuck's grand plan. Although India remains an essential market, it’s not the only place where Facebook offers Free Basics, which provides access to a host of Internet services like Wikipedia, the BBC, health sites and weather reports, and, of course, Facebook. The services are lightweight versions of the originals that load quickly and perform well on less robust 2G and 3G networks. It’s available in 36 countries, and Facebook claims it has brought the Internet to more than 19 million people who wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford access. 
 
 Today's ruling follows an intense period of public discussion after Indian regulators released a whitepaper detailing data pricing differentials in December, and invited a public response. During the past two months, net neutrality activists in India registered their opinions while Facebook sunk resources into online polls and offline ad campaigns to sway public opinion. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ultimately said in its ruling that no service provided can “offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.” In effect, regulators are banning "zero-rating," the practice of exempting some Internet-usage from the data cap that covers other services. Regulators say that by working with telecom companies to make some services free, and not others, Facebook's Free Basics unfairly helps some Internet services while disadvantaging others. 
 
 Troubled From the Start 
 
 Facebook began rolling out its app, which at the time it called Internet.org, in India last February in a partnership with various wireless carriers and other organizations. In April, shortly after the app launched in India, several publishers withdrew from the program, saying it violated the principles of net neutrality because Internet providers were favoring some services over others. Net neutrality, they argued, dictates that all online services be treated equally. By leaving out some apps, they argued, Facebook put some services at a competitive disadvantage. 
 
 Zuckerberg was upset. In a Facebook post, he said Facebook had no intention of blocking or throttling the Internet, which is how he defined net neutrality, but felt that building the app was necessary to get everyone online quickly. “These two principles—universal connectivity and net neutrality—can and must coexist,” he wrote. He said the debate itself was unfair because the people who stood to benefit most from free Internet service were not online to advocate for it. 
 
 In May, Facebook opened its developer platform so anyone could launch a service within the free app. In a video published at the time, Zuckerberg also argued for a “reasonable” definition of net neutrality. “It’s not an equal Internet if the majority of people can’t participate,” he said. After listing the non-Facebook services people could use, he concluded with a call to action, asking, “Are we a community that values people and improving people’s lives above all else? Or are we a community that puts the intellectual purity of technology above people’s needs?” 
 
 His speech only served to fuel critics. In mid-May, digital rights groups from 31 countries signed an open letter to Zuckerberg, saying Internet.org “violates the principles of net neutrality, threatening freedom of expression, equality of opportunity, security, privacy and innovation.” 
 
 Trying to Reboot 
 
 Facebook responded by rebranding its effort as Free Basics so it might sound less like the app intended to displace the entire Internet. Facebook also improved app security. Zuckerberg stepped up his efforts to defend the app. In September, he hosted prime minister Narendra Modi in Menlo Park. The following month, he returned to India, where he held a town hall meeting at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. At the event, he said a million people were using the app in India, and it had brought 15 million people online for the first time. That was Facebook’s version of success. 
 
 Then, in December, Indian regulators issued a temporary ban on the service. Zuckerberg penned an op-ed for an Indian newspaper, once again making his case for why, in a country where only 19 percent of the population is online, it’s more important to get everyone online quickly than it is to quibble about whether that process favors some Internet services over others. “This isn’t about Facebook’s commercial interests—there aren’t even any ads in the version of Facebook in Free Basics,” he wrote. “If people lose access to free basic services, they will simply lose access to the opportunities offered by the Internet today.” 
 
 With today's ruling, it's clear his opinion did not sway the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. 
 
 Meanwhile, the battle over net neutrality also is playing out in the US, where regulators are taking a less aggressive approach toward zero-rating. As WIRED's Klint Finley wrote recently, when Verizon launched the video service Go90, it decided not to ding Verizon customers for streaming its videos. But Netflix and YouTube videos still count against your data cap. A number of big telecoms are doing this. T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T are experimenting with the idea, and the Federal Communications Commission has yet to attempt regulating it. 
 
 Facebook is not giving up on its efforts to connect the unconnected in India. Although the company is disappointed by today's ruling, it insists, “We will continue our efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the Internet and the opportunities it brings.”
– Facebook failed Monday in its attempt to provide millions in India with a free but limited mobile Internet service called "Free Basics," the Washington Post reports. After nearly a year of debate between Mark Zuckerberg, Internet activists, and software developers, India's telecom regulator ruled that no data service provider can offer a different price—even a price of zero. The ruling jibes with critics who say Free Basics violates the principle of "net neutrality" and provides a "walled garden" of Internet access for the nation's poor. Indeed, Free Basics combines limited versions of services like Facebook, job listings, weather reports, the BBC, and Wikipedia, Wired reports. But Zuckerberg argues that Free Basics, used by millions worldwide, is about bringing more people online. "We know that when people have access to the internet they also get access to jobs, education, healthcare, communication," he wrote in a Times of India op-ed in December. "We know that for every 10 people connected to the internet, roughly one is lifted out of poverty." He also says Facebook doesn't profit because it places no ads in Free Basics. But Vijay Shekhar Sharma, a software developer and fierce Free Basics critic, calls the service "poor Internet for poor people" and compares it to British colonialism. "India, Do u buy into this baby internet?" he tweeted in December. "The East India company came with similar 'charity' to Indians a few years back!" Facebook says it plans to continue its effort to bring millions more people in India online.