Earlier, TRAI had extended the deadline for receiving comments on its differential pricing for data services till January 7th.
TRAI Chairman clearly stated that the people had to answer the specific questions, which was raised on the differential pricing for data services and not an opinion poll. TRAI had asked Facebook to reach out to the users and ask them to communicate directly and answer to the specific questions raised.
While Facebook claims that 11 million people have supported Free Basics, TRAI says that it has received response from only 1.89 million. Facebook’s deadline to bring back *these* 9 million supporter ends today.
“As these users had not communicated any valid communication address, TRAI was unable to communicate with them directly. Therefore, you were requested to communicate TRAI’s text to all such users immediately so that they could comment on specific questions raised in Consultation Paper,” TRAI said.
On January 6th, Facebook responded to TRAI, saying that that it was unable to reach out to people who had responded via missed call as Facebook did not have their email ids on record. To this, TRAI expressed disappointment saying that it expected Facebook to reach out through SMS text or other means and guided them the URL of the Consultation Paper of TRAI.
