Facebook shuts down Free Basics service in India

After TRAI's decision on discriminatory pricing, Facebook has announced that it has scrapped its controversial Free Basics initiative from India.

Earlier this week, TRAI issued regulations in favour of net neutrality ruling against differential pricing and also said that a per day penalty of Rs 50,000 will be levied for discriminatory tariffs charged by service providers, subject to a maximum of Rs 50 lakh.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his disappointment with TRAI's decision but said that the company was still "working to break down barriers to connectivity in India and around the world."

However, a Facebook spokesperson told IBNLive in an emailed statement, "Free Basics is no longer available to people in India."

In its regulations, TRAI has made it clear it "providing limited free data that enables a user to access the entire internet is not prohibited."

This is in contrast to the idea behind Free Basics (earlier named Internet.org) which aims to offer access to select content on the web without mobile data charges.

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