The “free internet” concept, promoted by Facebook in India and other countries, might not be useful for the local market, because telecom operators always need to invest in networks, said Catalin Marinescu, the president of the Communications Authority ANCOM.

Facebook launched three years ago the idea of a free internet, a collection of apps and services made for people in poor countries and distributed without charge. People would basically have access to free internet, although with limited options compared to the real one, if they have a Facebook account.

Marinescu also spoke about the Veritel.ro project, which ANCOM launched a few years ago, which compared offers of different telecom operators. The project helped decrease the number of offers from 3.4 million in 2010 to only 300,000 now.

editor@romania-insider.com