Free Internet Facility Provide by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

• 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 8th February, 2016. 

5. The following mechanism is recommended

• The Aggregators will need to register with DoT. 
• The registrant must be a company registered under Indian Companies Act, 1956. 
• The validity of registration shall be 5 years. 
• 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 05-02- 2019 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. 

The above statement was submitted by Ministry of Communication Department of Telecommunications of undermentioned Lok Sabha Question:-

As above

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