Facebook is currently testing their new Wi-Fi service plan named Express Wi-Fi in India, obviously Facebook need more service users so they can increase their user base. People would be able to purchase data from local ISP’s and use it over the Wi-Fi spots that would be available at various locations especially in rural areas. Express Wi-Fi service has already been tested with partnership of local Telecom Company for over hundreds of Wi-Fi spots in the rural areas of India.
Facebook has previously offered this type of Internet service which had some issues with the Government regulations, the service named Free Basics was eventually banned by the Indian Telecom Authority in Feb last year.
Facebook free basics was banned by the ITA due to the fact that it violated the concept of internet neutrality, According to Reuters the argument raised by the ITA was “Zero-rating or Toll free-data” is a practice which is not neutral in nature, it provides edge to the service provider and win customers while other social networks may struggle to compete because they cannot be accessed without paid data. That was a strong argument technically but some experts believe that this argument was escalated for deviation, which highlights the purpose of spying over the users which Facebook cannot allow.
In order to provide mobile internet services in the rural areas of India, Facebook has to make it paid and follow the Internet neutrality law imposed by the Indian government, which Mark Zuckerberg took as a challenge and said in an interview regarding ban
“We are committed to breakdown the connectivity in India and around the World, despite being disappointed by the decision”.
Source: BBC, Reuters, Verge, Internet.org
Image via: Gizbot
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