In a bid to support cashless economy, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended that a “reasonable amount” of data should be provided to rural subscribers for free. It said that the cost of such a scheme could be funded from the Universal Service Obligation Fund.

“In order to bridge the affordability gap for the persons residing in rural areas and to support government’s efforts towards cashless economy by incentivising digital means, the Authority recommends that a scheme under which a reasonable amount of data say 100 MB per month may be made available to rural subscribers for free,” it said in its recommendations.

The telecom regulator also said that to increase participation of other entities for incentivising free data, there is a need to introduce third party (aggregator) to facilitate schemes that are telecom service provider agnostic.

“Scheme for free data must be TSP-agnostic, must not involve any arrangement between the TSP( telecom service provider) and the aggregator/content provider and should not be designed to circumvent the “The Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations,” notified on February 8, 2016 ,” TRAI said in its recommendations.

Meanwhile, the regulator recommended that the aggregator will need to register with DoT and the validity of the registration shall be five years.

“The registrant shall not either directly or indirectly, assign or transfer the Registration in any manner whatsoever to a third party either in whole or in part,” it added.

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