Ignore ‘Free Basics’; tap into USOF instead
Former journalist Rohin Dharmakumar has made a telling comment on Twitter regarding Facebook’s attempt to get ‘zero-rating’ for their free Internet offer once calledinternet.org which has now been rebranded as ‘Free Basics’. He said, “There is an unmistakable sense of missionary proselytism when it comes to Facebook’s attitude to India, Asia and Africa. like Christian missionaries, Facebook seems to view people in India, Asia and Africa as heathen (no/limited Internet) to convert (Facebook).” Mr Dharmakumar’s view is a bit extreme, but this paper and others too, have for long argued that a truly free and fair Internet needs to be neutral, one where services can grow out of an idea. This is what makes Facebook’s recent advertising spree for internet.org a bit ironic. These advertisements claim that India’s poor can achieve great things if they have access to the Internet. Yes, much like the mobile phone transformed the Indian economy, so will access to data, but data needs to be fair. If it is not, then a new digital start-up — and the next generation of Indian digital start-ups may well be born in the head of a teenager in a mofussil town — will possibly not be able to compete, as Facebook (or any other organisation including Indian telecom companies) will determine if the debutant can be viewed for free.
The Government needs to do more to ensure that affordable data services becomes available to more Indians. Despite being ubiquitous among a certain section of Indian society and in urban areas, access to reliable and affordable data is at best patchy across much of the Indian hinterland. And there is a solution to make data affordable to more Indians — subsidies. While some economists shudder at the mention of this word, the fact is that for several years, mobile phone users have been paying a little bit from every recharge and every monthly bill into the Universal Service Obligation Fund. This fund’s purpose is to bring parts of India uncovered by mobile telephony into the fold. As regular market forces have ensured that close to 97 per cent of India’s geographical territory has cell phone coverage, the need now exists to change the prerogative of the USOF to ensure that as many Indians as possible have access to reliable and affordable data. Surprisingly, while the fund raised Rs58,579 crore between 2002 and 2014, a Comptroller and Auditor-General report in May this year found that Rs33,683 crore from the fund was diverted to other purposes. The fund had become a piggy bank to raid for profligate spending by the previous administration. Market forces have ensured that data-capable handsets cost under Rs2,000 today, yet data charges in India remain high. The Government should consider tapping the existing fund to give young Indians access to data. This will spare India the ignominy of depending on handouts by companies, who, let us be honest, do not have the best interests of the people they want to connect in mind, but that of their own.