Indian Regulators Suspend Facebook’s Free Basic Services

Telecommunications regulators in India have ordered the suspension of Facebook’s controversial program to bring free basic Internet services to mobile phone users in the country. Facebook’s program, called Free Basics, is one of the signature projects of Internet.org, the company’s ambitious plan to bring the Internet to the billions of people around the world who do not have it. The idea is to give novices a taste of the Internet and encourage them to buy paid data services when they want to explore the Internet more widely. But critics say that by offering a free package of handpicked services, Facebook and its partners are discouraging people from using competing services and violating the principle of network neutrality.

An Indian regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, has now told Reliance Communications, Facebook’s partner in India, to stop offering Free Basics. The order — which was quietly issued about two weeks ago but leaked to the Indian news media the week of Dec 21 — came after Reliance failed to turn over information about the terms and conditions of the service, which it had planned to expand across the country beginning in Nov. “Till such details are submitted to the authority, the launch of the service shall be put in abeyance,” said Ram Sewak Sharma, the agency’s chairman.