Amid the ongoing chaos about net neutrality and controlled directives by TRAI, the regulatory authority has decided to go ahead with its plan of providing 100mb data free every day to the rural population. The announcement was made through a statement issued yesterday by TRAI, telecom regulatory authority of India.
According to a number of media reports, TRAI was asked to intervene in the matter to control the extremely-low priced data offered by some telecom operators. The regulatory authority excused itself from intervening in the pricing strategy of telecom companies, however, it stated that a new alternative has been found. According to TRAI’s alternative, the companies will be asked to provide a generalized data plan to the rural population. TRAI will act as an aggregator and the new plan will ensure a transparency in the data plans offered exclusively for the rural subscribers.
In its statement yesterday, TRAI stated that the old recommendations were based on the market situations in September 2016. However, post that, entry of a new subscriber, with its complete focus on data services, has disrupted the data market and the prices have gone to an all-time low. The report also states that DoT and TRAI are trying to come on a single-page for the benefit of customers, especially in the rural areas. TRAI is also voicing its concerns and suggestions to develop regional content for the rural population.
Recently, TRAI had issued a statement in support of Net Neutrality and said that the authority will take care of the directions to prevent any kind of discrimination in the data services.