Lok Sabha Question No. 3774 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-12-11
Subject: Free Internet Services
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Devusinh Jesingbhai Chauhan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3774 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11 TH   DECEMBER, 2019

## FREE INTERNET SERVICES

## 3774. SHRI DEVUSINH JESINGHBHAI CHAUHAN:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government proposes free internet facility to the consumers in the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the places selected for the said 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 under the TRAI guidelines?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(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:
5.  The Aggregators will need to register with DoT.
6.  The  registrant  must  be  a  company  registered  under  Indian  Companies  Act, 1956.
7.  The validity of registration shall be 5 years.
8.  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 then 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  Government  deliberated  on  the  response  of  TRAI  and  decided  not  to  accept  the recommendations of TRAI due to the following reasons:

- i. 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.
- ii. 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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