In 2015, the well-known social media platform Facebook partnered with other companies, like Samsung, Ericsson, and Nokia to introduce internet.org. It was introduced to provide limited internet access to areas with otherwise no connectivity. In many rural and economically weak parts of the country, mobile users could, using internet.org, connect to Facebook and few websites chosen by the social media giant at a minimal cost. On February 11, Facebook withdrew internet.org, which later came to be known as free basics, from India.

But what made the country, with a large rural population, decline this offer for a free internet? On the face of it, the initiative promised to make internet ubiquitous in the country and provide access to those left behind in the internet revolution. However, on closer inspection the initiative gave rise to a larger debate on Net Neutrality – the idea that those who regulate the internet, like service providers and governments, should treat all content on the internet equally, regardless of who is creating, hosting or consuming the content.

One of the main points of discussion was the idea of ‘differential pricing’ of the content, which would allow internet service providers (ISP’s), like AT&T and Airtel, to charge different prices for different content providers, based on sponsorship.

A new study by Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and University of Avignon, France has now studied the proposed differential pricing schemes and tested its effect on the quality of service of a content provider. For the study, the researchers considered a model with a single ISP and multiple content providers. Content providers (CP) are chosen by the consumers, based on the quality of service they provide. The study revealed that, in a differential pricing regime, the quality of service (QoS) of the content providers could degrade. It showed that a CP providing a poor QoS could make more revenue than a CP offering high QoS, through sponsorships. It also showed the mean delay for end users or the time taken for a page to load on a computer could also degrade if differential pricing is introduced.

While the net neutrality debate still rages on, the study gives us an idea of the possible consequence of changing the free market nature of the internet.