The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will come out with final consultation paper on ‘free data’ by month-end. It will also bring out a pre-consultation paper on Net neutrality by the end of this month.

“We will bring out the final consultation paper on free data by end of this month since the pre-consultation is done, and also the pre-consultation paper on Net neutrality will be out by end of this month,” RS Sharma, Chairman, TRAI, told reporters here. Speaking on the sidelines of launch of a new portal — ‘Quality of Services (QoS)’, he said TRAI is trying its best to find solutions for consumer satisfaction and protection through various consultation papers and such portals.

The consultation paper on free data was released on May 19. It had asked if there was a possibility of giving free data as rewards to customers, and if such models should be regulated.

However, such idea was opposed by various content providers and telecom service providers (TSPs).

There has been debates on models such as Facebook’s Free Basics and Airtel Zero, which TRAI has prohibited under its discriminatory pricing order.

World over, there has been debates on topics such as free data and Net neutrality because in some way they are beneficial to one party, but discriminating to the other.

Portal on quality of services Meanwhile, the TRAI portal on QoS will allow a user to check call drop rate of the network of any telecom operator for any specific location in the country.

The all India view also shows the call drop rate of any telecom operator in different areas of the country.

Users can navigate and view the performance of the operator for service area, district, city of base transceiver station location.

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