[kictanet] Introducing Facebook Africa Public Policy Team to KICTANet

Thu Dec 3 20:20:53 EAT 2015

Answers below-
[Description: Description: Description: cid:image001.png at 01C8F888.8FCCE630]

Ebele Okobi | Head of Public Policy, Africa
m. +44 (0) 771 156 1315
2 Stephen St | London | W1T 1AN
ebeleokobi at fb.com

From: <wainaina at madeinkenya.org<mailto:wainaina at madeinkenya.org>> on behalf of DigitalTVAfrica <wainaina at DigitalTVAfrica.com<mailto:wainaina at DigitalTVAfrica.com>>
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2015 at 4:54 PM
To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>>
Cc: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack at gmail.com<mailto:otieno.barrack at gmail.com>>, Ebele Okobi <ebeleokobi at fb.com<mailto:ebeleokobi at fb.com>>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Introducing Facebook Africa Public Policy Team to KICTANet

Hi Ebele,

Those were great responses to questions on net-neutrality vs. zero rating.....and the commitment of Facebook to support delivery of affordable 'full internet'.

My interest is in your engagement work on Spectrum Policy in connection to the efforts of the ConnectivityLab. Facebook has partnered with others in Ghana to pilot TV Whitespace as a connectivity solution for affordable rural broadband. Facebook's partner in Ghana includes Microsoft, which has supported the development of Mawingu Networks - a TVWS connectivity startup in Kenya. There is however no mention of TVWhitespace technology on Internet.org. With the above in mind;

1)  What is the experience of Facebook in using TV Whitespace technology as an option to connect underserved areas? ...as opposed to the other connectivity approaches by ConnectivityLab.

 I think the overall point is that FB is agnostic as to the medium-we think that there are many different potential connectivity solutions, and we are working on pilots of many different technologies with different partners. I don’t think we have enough pilots to be able to give an opinion, but we look forward to learning more in 2016.

2) With more African countries set to free-up analogue TV spectrum in the coming months as they migrate to Digital TV, are there plans by Facebook to promote the use of TVWhitespace spectrum as an affordable option to avail the 'full internet'?

Per above-we are agnostic-we wouldn’t necessarily promote one solution over another, as we believe it’s quite context-specific. AT the moment, we are a bit more focused on Aquila, express wi-fi, satellite back haul and a couple of other rural connectivity pilots, but we also note the excellent work that Microsoft is doing with TV Whitespace

3) Will the FreeBasics model be applied to the WiFi projects that use TV Whitespace spectrum to connect the underserved?

What projects are you referring to? Our Express WiFi projects are not using TV White space.

4) What policy barriers has Facebook faced (or barriers it foresees) in running TVWS connectivity projects in Ghana or launching a similar initiative in Kenya?

Per above, we are currently focused a bit more on the pilots outlined above at present.

Regards,
Wainaina

On 3 Dec 2015 17:30, "Barrack Otieno via kictanet" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>> wrote:

Many thanks Ebele,

Very usefull information.

Regards

On Dec 3, 2015 5:00 PM, "Ebele Okobi" <ebeleokobi at fb.com<mailto:ebeleokobi at fb.com>> wrote:
Answers below!
[Description: Description: Description: cid:image001.png at 01C8F888.8FCCE630]

Ebele Okobi | Head of Public Policy, Africa
m. +44 (0) 771 156 1315<tel:%2B44%20%280%29%20771%20156%201315>
2 Stephen St | London | W1T 1AN
ebeleokobi at fb.com<mailto:ebeleokobi at fb.com>

From: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack at gmail.com<mailto:otieno.barrack at gmail.com>>
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2015 at 10:00 AM
To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>>
Cc: Ebele Okobi <ebeleokobi at fb.com<mailto:ebeleokobi at fb.com>>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Introducing Facebook Africa Public Policy Team to KICTANet

Hi Ebele,

Many thanks for your responses. I have a somewhat dumb question, some might have been partly addressed.

1. What role does the facebook public policy team play in Africa?

Our role is the same as our public policy colleagues around the world-we are ambassadors for Facebook in our markets, and ambassadors to Facebook on behalf of our markets. We engage with policy makers across Sub-Saharan Africa (we have a colleague who covers MENA) and with civil society, NGOs, and other policy influencers on policy issues that are relevant to our company. The list of issues is extremely long, but highlights include net neutrality, privacy/free expression, child safety, online violence against women, access policies (which include issues like spectrum allocation, right of way tax)-really, any policy issue that is connected with being a tech company and social media platform.

2. What led to the creation of the team?

Same as with all of our other policy teams-business interest and opportunity should be supported with policy engagement. We launched our first Africa business office this past June, and our team supports our business and policy objectives.

3. What are facebooks plans regarding promotion of  local content and extending connectivity to marginalized areas?

I actually covered our connectivity plans fairly exhaustively in my first email—can you please have a look and come back to me if you have specific follow up questions? W/r to local content, I’m REALLY excited about this, because this is where I think there is so much opportunity to amplify great local content.  We have hired, also per my first email, Emeka Afigbo, who is leading on content partnerships for Free Basics and will also lead on developer engagement across EMEA. We also have Dayo Olopade, who is leading on media partnerships for Facebook’s platform (so, not Free Basics), which will include news, entertainment, sport, etc.-she is joined by Michael Ohene-Djan, who leads on engagement with entertainment, specifically. To the extent that you have specific recommendations for any of those people/teams, do let me know, and I’d be happy to connect you.

4. What is Facebooks defination of Net Neutrality and what is its position on the same?

I also covered this in my first email, but I am happy to re-state-
We believe that services should not be throttled and access should not be degraded.
We are in favor of an open Internet and business arrangements that provide Internet access to more people.
We believe that zero-rating can be a powerful tool to aid competition-it is most often used by market challengers against entrenched incumbents.
We do not believe that zero-rating of services, especially where the content provider a) does not own the “pipes”; b) does not pay operators for content to be zero-rated; c) offers the content to all operators on a non-exclusive basis; d) does not require operators to exclusively carry their content, zero-rated or not, does NOT violate net neutrality.

If you have any specific questions, after reviewing the above or my previous email, happy to reply!

Please educate me

Thanks

On Dec 3, 2015 9:56 AM, "Ebele Okobi via kictanet" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>> wrote:
Zero-rating plans  are indeed fully compatible and offered along with paid plans-they are just one of many options, and per my response below, zero-rating that is paid for by operator must exist together with paid plans because if not, the operator can't survive.

Ebele Okobi | Head of Public Policy, Africa
m. +44 (0) 771 156 1315<tel:+44%20(0)%20771%20156%201315>
10 Brock Street | London | NW1 3FG
ebeleokobi at fb.com<mailto:ebeleokobi at fb.com>

[6F376569-CC77-422B-BAD3-794055B1E02B]

On Dec 3, 2015, at 5:57 AM, waudo siganga via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>> wrote:

A quick one for Kivuva, Hussein, Ebele - Please clarify is this Zero-rating incompatible with, i.e. mutually exclusive to paid services? Why cant they operate TOGETHER.
Waudo

On Thu, Dec 3, 2015, at 01:52 AM, Mwendwa Kivuva wrote:

There is a good satirical letter from Max, Zuckerberg's daughter on giving people free access to Facebook as if it was water or electricity: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/02/max_zuckerberg_reply_letter/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.theregister.co.uk_2015_12_02_max-5Fzuckerberg-5Freply-5Fletter_&d=CwMCAw&c=5VD0RTtNlTh3ycd41b3MUw&r=ArvepG4_wcNu_X9xi3nb_Xa9WsGLVfmK6mwPdVONOTE&m=1ofvsWEAoehiEhB-dCxh1KgaGPcRfqQJtXIk2EWLIdY&s=sTudx9RKEpMTIDrooq2cQ0jfcJSIgIeFLOoxc6FzFHg&e=>,

On Dec 3, 2015 1:05 AM, Kivuva at transworldafrica.com<mailto:Kivuva at transworldafrica.com> wrote:

Dr. Waudo, your questions are valid, and very well structured. This is what has been asked for some years now. And the idea of asking Facebook to come over is for them to school us too on their view of net neutrality.

But find my attempt inline:

On Dec 2, 2015 6:48 PM, "waudo siganga" <emailsignet at mailcan.com<mailto:emailsignet at mailcan.com>> wrote:
>
> Hi Kivuva/Hussein. I need a little more enlightenment:
>
> 1. Is the "Zero-Rating" issue a debate or has it already been concluded that it is a bad thing? There is a hint that supporting it may leave one in not very good standing..

This has not been agreed upon. We would probably not get an answer to whether it is good or bad. But some countries have determined and outlawed zero rating,  some analyze zero rating requests on case by case basis, and other have approved zero rating.

> 2. According to Kivuva's well-written article "Zero rating infringes on fundamental human rights by denying users access to the Internet". Are other service providers, including those offering "full" Internet Access at a fee, stopped or hindered from offering their services when some companies offer the zero-rating? Can both forms operate at the same time?

This is a great question. And it is probably the main selling point for zero rating. To answer the question, if you have a data package, you can access the Internet outside the zero rated area. I probably like the idea. But what are the root cause for using zero rating? Can we make the Internet affordable?

> 3. In Q2 above I have "full" in quotes because in my use of Internet I am yet to come across a truly "neutral Internet" i.e. sometimes I try to access certain websites or services and you are unable as you get a message that you cannot access that site/service from your country, meaning many services providers already practise packet filtering.

True. There are many ways in which net neutrality is infringed, and there are different legislation from country to country on those aspects. The one that has affected us more is bandwidth trotting, especially of bit torrent traffic. An ISP advertises unlimited Internet access at $$$, then when you start using more resources than they had anticipated, they tighten your pipe. Bandwidth trotting and protocol blocking was banned by EU in 2014. Mobile carriers used to block access to Skype because it hurts voice, calling, and text-messaging revenue.

So part of why we have been calling for a Net Neutrality law in Kenya is to protect the consumer, and also have a stand. Currently, the ISP can do whatever they want. The model to adopt is upto the community.

> 4. Hussein gives certain characteristics of a "market" but probably leaves out a very critical one: Choice. The best market is the one where ALL service providers are given the opportunity to offer their services and consumers are left to choose. At the end of the day it is the consumers that decide which companies and services survive and which wilt along the way. Why choose for the consumer beforehand by barring certain services or business models?

Be careful before you imprison yourself with your own words :). In the same breath of choice, who decided which websites a consumer should have access to? Why choose for the consumer beforehand? :) Why limit consumer choice?

At another level, consumers are not usually very knowledgeable in what they want, or even what is good for a country. I'm ready to bet that if one country allows zero rating, and another country provides reliable affordable broadband, then the one with affordable broadband will experience faster economic growth. This is just an hypothesis.

> 5. A couple of years ago the cost and affordability of Internet access was a key ICT public policy issue. We said it was a major impediment to the spread of Internet use. How do we reconcile that with opposition to free (ok "free" as Hussein corrected me) services even if they are only offering a slice of what an open Internet offers.

Cost and access are still very relevant especially in our region of the world. That was why the IGF theme was "connecting the next billion." And there are very great suggestions thrown around on how to reduce the cost. Licensing, competition, usf, infrastructure sharing, taxes,...... We are really disadvantaged when it comes to utilising the great benefits of the Internet. Now what happens when we shrink that space more?

>
> On a lighter note these days I am very happy with Facebook especially the Groups, as I get to know what is going on in the village. But I have been accessing them using a paid service perhaps I can save a few shillings if I got to know how to connect for free.

And Facebook likes these case studies. I heard them happily say how they are helping women chamas organise themselves, and also organise civil activism to foster democracy in places like Myanmar. Well, I want that too :-)

>
> I know Kivuva and Hussein have had extensive opportunity to study this area of Zero-Rating and also to listen o experts so I apologize in advance if my questions do not sound sophisticated.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Waudo
>
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2015, at 05:07 PM, Mwendwa Kivuva wrote:
>>
>> We are having the most vibrant debate on Net Neutrality on the list in a long while. Thanks for all contributors, and GG for initiating this timely discussion. It's exciting to see many people interested with the zero rating debate. I'm sure Ebele and Akua from Facebook are fascinated by the dynamism of this group. Thank you Ebele and Akua for graciously joining this debate.
>>
>> I'll keep my opinions to myself and only ask questions.
>>
>>
>>
>> 1. Does Facebook support Net Neutrality?
>>
>> 2. Does Facebook's zero rating contravene net neutrality principle?
>>
>> 3. Will Facebook take "zero rated services" to areas without any connectivity infrastructure?
>>
>> 4. Will Facebook zero rated services reach all the people, even those with feature phones? Does fb have non app based Free basics?. What percentage of your target market has access to smart phones?
>>
>> 5. Which network operators does Facebook work with? Are all ISPs welcomed to the party?
>>
>> 6. Will free basics help reduce the cost of internet access?
>>
>> 7. Does Facebook pay ISPs to offer the "walled garden" to end users?
>>
>> 8. Why is Facebook running campaigns for "free basics" in a way to suggest that it is  giving free access to the internet? Is FB and a few vanilla websites the Internet?
>>
>> 9. Facebook is considered affluent. Would it consider providing free internet to everyone?
>>
>> 10. Is free basics bridging the digital divide or creating confusion of those who cannot differentiate between Facebook and the Internet? Is Facebook keen that users from the developing world have access to the whole wealth of knowledge and information that the Internet provides?
>>
>>
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Mwendwa Kivuva

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