Lok Sabha Question No. 159 (STARRED), answered on 2019-02-13
Subject: Free Internet Facility
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: HEMANT TUKARAM GODSE

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.159 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13 TH  FEBRUARY, 2019

## FREE INTERNET FACILITY

- *159. SHRI GODSE HEMANT TUKARAM:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  is  mulling  over  providing  free  internet  facility  to  the consumers;

- (b) if so, the details thereof and the places selected for the purpose;

- (c) whether  the  Government  has  a  plan  to  offer  free  internet  services  within  the  net neutrality framework;

- (d) if so, the details thereof; and

- (e) the model of free data delivery offered to the consumers within TRAI guidelines?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

- (a) to (e) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

Contd………2/-

## STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *159 FOR 13 TH  FEBRUARY, 2019 ON 'FREE INTERNET FACILITY'.

(a) to (e) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) submitted its recommendations to  Department  of  Telecommunications  (DoT)  on  'Encouraging  Data  usage  in  Rural  Areas through Provisioning of Free Data' dated 19-12-2016.

The  recommendations  were  an  outcome  of  the  Consultation  Paper  on  'Free  Data' that  was  suo moto floated by TRAI on 19-05-2016 to address the issue of providing free Internet  access  to  consumers  and  to  explore  model(s)  that  could  achieve  the  benefits  of offering 'free data' without infringing upon the 'Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016' of TRAI. The recommendations of TRAI are as under:

1. In  order  to  bridge  the  affordability  gap  for  the  persons  residing  in  rural  areas and to support Governments efforts towards cashless economy by incentivising digital  means,  the  Authority  recommends  that  a  scheme  under  which  a reasonable amount of data say 100 MB per month may be made available to rural subscribers for free.
2. The cost of implementation of the scheme may be met from USOF.
3. To increase participation of other entities for incentivizing free data, there is a need to introduce third party (Aggregator) to facilitate schemes which are TSPs agnostic and non-discriminatory in their implementation.
4. Scheme for free data must be TSP-agnostic, must not involve any arrangement between  the  TSP  and  the  aggregator/content  provider  and  should  not  be designed to circumvent the 'The Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations,' notified on 8 th February, 2016.
5. The following mechanism is recommended
6.  The Aggregators will need to register with DoT.
7.  The  registrant  must  be  a  company  registered  under  Indian  Companies Act, 1956.
8.  The validity of registration shall be 5 years.
9.  The registrant shall not either directly or indirectly, assign or transfer the Registration in any manner whatsoever to a third party either in whole or in part.

The  recommendations  were  examined  by  the  Telecom  Commission  in  its  meeting held on 08-09-2017 and were referred back to TRAI for clarifications / reconsideration vide DoT letter dated 25-09-2017. TRAI submitted its response dated 29-11-2017 to the above reference from DoT.

The Digital Communications Commission (DCC) in its recent meeting held on 05-022019 deliberated on the response of TRAI and decided not to accept the recommendations of TRAI due to the following reasons:

- a)  TRAI  Recommendation No. 1 & 2: The concern with regard  to  availability  of affordable data services has been mitigated through competition in the market. Therefore, for the holistic development of Internet ecosystem in the country, a

larger  focus  is  required  on  connectivity,  content  availability  in  local  language and Digital literacy, instead of affordability.

- b)  TRAI Recommendation No. 3, 4 & 5: The aggregator model is targeted towards those who are existing users of Internet but their usage may be limited due to the price of data services. The issue of affordability has been mitigated through competition in the market.

Besides,  similar  models  of  offering  discounts  through  websites/  portals/  apps (analogous to aggregator) are at present prevalent in many other sectors of the economy wherein consumers are offered discounts for transactions through the websites/ portals/ apps. At present, there is no direct Government intervention which regulates such websites/ portals/ apps. Therefore, there is no need for Government  intervention  to  regulate  the  aggregators  through  registration process.

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