Facebook has withdrawn its Free Basics service from India, after the country's telecom regulator banned discriminatory pricing for different data services on Feb. 8. The decision has been a huge setback for the company, which had been promoting Free Basics as a "free" platform to connect Indians to the Internet, through an extensive campaign.

"Free Basics is no longer available to people in India," a Facebook spokesperson said. This decisions comes after an announcement by its telecom partner Reliance Communications, that Free Basics would be a paid platform.

"To be fully compliant with the new regulations announced by Trai, RCom has already begun the process of re-configuring access to FreeBasics, from the current free regime to a chargeable one, as per the existing data plans of our customers," a Reliance spokesperson had said.

In December, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had asked Reliance to temporarily suspend its Free Basics services, until the regulator had completed its consultation procedure on differential pricing for data. On Feb. 8, TRAI finally barred the program along with any other zero rated offering, a decision that was guided by the "principles of net neutrality."

On Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said that while he was "disappointed" by the decision, the company's "mission" continues. In a Facebook post, he wrote that it was "committed to keep working to break down barriers to connectivity in India and around the world." He further added that "connecting India is an important goal we won't give up on, because more than a billion people in India don't have access to the Internet."