Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik says while he considers the motives behind the Free Basics of Facebook are commendable, there are clear issues around web neutrality as well as the job does not solve the fundamental issue of connectivity.

Free Basics does not solve the issue of connectivity,” says Pramanik, apparently referring to the fact that you need to be a Reliance Communications customer within mobile coverage to profit from the job in India.

“But when you have got that then you’ve got access to specific Internet-based services which are free. That is what essentially it’s.”
“Long term is it sustainable, I do not understand. Microsoft’s own job, the drones of Facebook, and Google’s Project Loon WhiteFi intention to deal with this issue.

Facebook’s Free Basics by its very nature supplies its users free access to a predetermined set of sites, while blocking out the remainder of Internet.
“We support web neutrality,” says Pramanik, describing Microsoft’s position on the issue. But when it comes to purpose, itis an excellent action to do.”

“The purpose of what they’re saying that Free Basics will do is that it’s going to help a first-time user in order to make use of the Internet a lot more efficiently,” he adds. ” So that is a commendable goal. Is this the ideal mechanism to do that is questionable, as the operators can use this and so it defeats the objective of web neutrality.”