TRAI again for free internet

After bailing out of the enrage over net neutrality and internet.org in the past. TRAI is back again with a googly of sorts. It is a  consultation paper floated by TRAI, to know whether it's possible to provide free internet and not infringe on the sensitive subject of net neutrality activists and its supporters alike.

Last time when Facebook wanted to make a portion of the internet available to users in the country for free it was too merky and too diffficult to come out of it. Now, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) wants to communicate with small entrepreneurs to emerge and to give users more choice when it comes to accessing the internet, without letting telecom service providers (TSPs) act as gatekeepers.

TRAI floated a three possible models plan with the operators.

a) Create a toll-free platform that allows users to browse for free

b) Create a platform whre consumers pay upfront but, are subsequently reimbursed

c) Applications that reward users with incentives such as recharge for data or voice usage

Now, the first option, the toll-free model looks very similar to the differential pricing regulation TRAI had banned earlier. Which means that is out of question.

Coming to the second option, which is again very similar to the first but instead of a reward or cash back there’s no data charge for consumers. To sum it up they are similar to Airtel’s zero rating or Facebook’s Free Basics, which are now prohibited.

Toll-free model does put TSPs in a passive role and content providers offer their services at no cost to the users.

The third model suggests the possibility of "rewarding" of users by the content providers, irrespective of which telecom service provider the subscriber is using. The TRAI paper says, "in this reward-based model apps could provide rewards in the form of a recharge for data usage or for voice usage to users."

International Business Times reports that, one viable solution to this conundrum could be on the lines of the TV licence fee that is levied by governments on users, which helps fund public broadcasting — a model that helps the U.K. run BBC. They suggest, a licence fee on high-speed 3G and 4G data could help offset or maybe even cover the costs of providing free internet at lower speeds.

The experiment though difficult is in similar practice in Finland. Where they successuly followed a basic income experiment, where everybody is entitled to a fixed income irrespective of how rich they are. The basic idea is that a consumer has free access to an app or a website irrespective of the service provider.

TRAI has invited comments on the paper by June 16 and actions on it by June 30.