TRAI recommends free data access to rural subscribers
Posted on: 20/Dec/2016 12:26:48 PM
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI, has recommended that a reasonable amount of free data access should be provided to rural subscribers on monthly basis and the scheme could be funded from the Universal Service Obligation Fund.
Speaking about this, TRAI said, In order to bridge the affordability gap for the persons residing in rural areas and to support government`s 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. We suggest that the cost of implementation of the scheme may be met from Universal Service Obligation Fund, USOF. We recommend that to increase participation of other entities for incentivising free data, there is a need to introduce third party, Aggregator, to facilitate schemes which are telecom operator agnostic and non-discriminatory in their implementation. The scheme for free data must be telecom operator agnostic and must not involve any arrangement between the telecom service provider and the aggregator/content provider.
The aggregators providing free data service will need to register with the Department of Telecom and it should be a company registered under Indian Companies Act, 1956. The validity of registration shall be five 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.
