New Delhi, Dec 31 (Agencies): India’s telecom regulator Trai will write back to people who have commented through a template supporting Facebook’s Free Basics project to answer specific questions asked by in the consultation process that precedes rule-making on data pricing.

R.S. Sharma, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, said the authority has got about 1.82 million responses till now out of which around 890,000 were through phone and 544,000 through Facebook mail supporting Free Basics.

Free Basics, Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg’s pet project, offers pared-down web services on mobile phones, along with access to Facebook's own social network and messaging services, without charge.

Sharma said more than three-quarters of these 1.82 million comments will be disregarded as they did not follow the proper format. The comments did not answer the questions asked by the regulator.

The regulator has received 381,000 comments from people claiming to be supporters of net neutrality. Sharma said although these comments are also in a template form, the template answers all the questions with minor variations so there is no need to write back to them.

It got around 12,000 messages other than template-based comments.

Trai has extended the last date for receiving comments on its consultation paper on differential data pricing to January 7.

Facebook has launched a massive campaign in support of Free Basics, which some say violates the principle of net neutrality, the concept that all websites on the internet are treated equally.

Critics say it would put small content-providers and start-ups that don't participate in it at a disadvantage, they say.

Earlier this month, Trai had asked Reliance Communications to keep Free Basics in abeyance till the issue on differential pricing is sorted out.

At stake is Facebook's ambition to expand in its largest market outside the United States. Only 252 million of India's 1.3 billion people have Internet access, making it a growth market for firms including Google and Facebook.

Launched last year in Zambia, Free Basics, earlier known as internet.org, has run in to trouble elsewhere on grounds that it infringes the principle of net neutrality. Authorities in Egypt effectively suspended the service when a required permit was not renewed after it lapsed on Wednesday.