[kictanet] Fwd: [global-nn] Indian regulator bans differential pricing, including zero rating
Ephraim Percy Kenyanito
ephraim at accessnow.org
Tue Feb 9 01:06:07 EAT 2016
Interesting opinion by Steve Song (South African),
Susan and Ginger (who are part of the UN MAG) and I invited him, Kevin
Martin from FB, Jochai from Mozilla among other leading policy people
and researchers to the 2015 UN IGF main session on Zero rating last year
in November. (FYI- Find the report of the session here:
https://www.intgovforum.org/cms/documents/igf-meeting/igf-2015-joao-pessoa/igf2015-reports/583-igf2015a-dialogue-on-zerorating-and-network-neutrality/file)
Steve Song's February 9th Post:
http://manypossibilities.net/2016/02/resolving-the-free-basics-paradox/
Today the Indian communication regulator announced
<http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/trai-rules-in-favour-of-net-neutrality/article8209455.ece>
that it would forbid the provision of differential pricing for data
services on the basis of content. This decision effectively bans
Facebook’s Free Basics <https://0.freebasics.com/desktop> initiative
which offers access to Facebook and a suite of other content
providers for free. The issue of Net Neutrality, Zero Rating, and Free
Basics in India has risen to prominence in the last year with a hugely
popular grass-roots campaign to encourage the regulator to block such
initiatives. Facebook responded by adapting many aspects of their
offering to accommodate public push-back, including renaming
Internet.org to Free Basics, opening the platform to more content
providers, and ensuring the program was open to all network operators.
But for many all that amounted to was putting lipstick on a pig. The
stakes of the debate grew higher as Facebook embarked on an expensive
advertising campaign in support of Free Basics. Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg made the issue personal by making a public appeal
<http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/free-basics-protects-net-neutrality/> to
Indians, asking “Who could possibly be against this?” The answer to
that became clear today.
Today’s decision is a victory for those opposed to “walled gardens” but
it is something of a paradox that the Internet itself has become a
“walled garden” between those who have affordable access and those who
don’t. If we are passionate about creating a level playing field on the
Internet then we must be passionate about making the Internet affordable
and accessible to all. Among the many news articles lauding the
decision taken by the Indian regulator, none were written by anyone
without access. The disconnected are excluded from the discussion.
It is an uncomfortable truth that, in emerging economies, Facebook had
already won the Internet well before Internet.org and the FreeBasics
campaign began. Facebook became the de facto Internet for many people
because it did the most profoundly useful thing the Internet can do,
connect people. Connecting people to each other in meaningful ways is
the secret sauce of the Internet and, for the last few years, Facebook
has been best of breed at doing that. The 16 million people
<http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2016/02/nigeria-16-million-visit-facebook-on-mobile-monthly/>
who connected to Facebook in Nigeria this month alone are evidence of
this. From family connections to political movements, Facebook has
proven itself to be an extremely powerful platform for people to share
knowledge, act collectively, air their frustrations, you name it. Mark
Zuckerberg has a real point when he asks who could possibly be against
offering this for free.
And yet, this is not ok.
At the micro level, Facebook delivers exactly what people want,
connection and community. At the macro level where Facebook’s
algorithms decide which articles and which ads to display to users,
things are more complicated. Having a private company that connects
over a billion people making decisions about how and when to display
information to users is clearly problematic and we currently have no
idea how to deal with it. And of course not just Facebook but every
Internet company that has gone to scale from Google to Uber to Spotify
and many others. One of the few antidotes to this problem is consumer
choice, the ability to select a different platform if only to be able to
see compare algorithms across platforms. Without consumer choice we
have no idea whether the beautiful peaches growing in our garden are
genetically-modified or not because we have nothing to compare them to.
Given the choice between GMO peaches and nothing at all, most people
would eat the peach. Indeed, it is morally questionable to argue that
those who can’t afford Internet access should forgo free access to
Facebook until affordable “neutral” access is available to them. I
believe the only way to resolve this problem is to make the Internet
generically free for *all users* or at least low-bitrate access to the
Internet. This is the essence of what I advocate for in A Modest
Proposal
<http://manypossibilities.net/2015/11/zero-rating-a-modest-proposal/> in
which I argue that connecting all phones to the Internet by default
would make good economic sense for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs)
thanks to the network effects they would enjoy from having millions more
data users on the network.
Pre-paid users on mobile phone networks have always enjoyed being
connected to the voice networks for free. MNOs don’t do this out of the
goodness of their hearts but because it generates traffic, more people
to call. Also, a significant percentage of those users will keep an
airtime balance which adds up to a lot of money held by the MNO. A
recent Forbes article
<http://forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2015/09/28/6-lessons-from-mobile-money-ventures-in-developing-countries/> identifying
lessons from mobile money ventures in developing countries identifies
the importance of offering the service for free as one of six key
lessons. It is hard to imagine that a free, always-on basic Internet
for mobile phones would not lead to massive growth in data-rich
services. Low-bitrate data for everyone, why not?
--
Best Regards,
Ephraim Percy Kenyanito
Sub-Saharan Africa Policy Analyst
Access Now | accessnow.org
@ekenyanito
PGP: E6BA8DC1
Fingerprint: B0FA394AF73DEB7AA1FDC7360CFED26DE6BA8DC1
On 02/08/2016 06:40 PM, Ephraim Percy Kenyanito wrote:
> +1 to "There's nothing better than evidence based policy making. . ."
>
> --
>
> Best Regards,
>
> *Ephraim Percy Kenyanito*
>
> Sub-Saharan Africa Policy Analyst
> Access Now | accessnow.org <http://accessnow.org/>
>
> @ekenyanito
> PGP: E6BA8DC1
> Fingerprint: B0FA394AF73DEB7AA1FDC7360CFED26DE6BA8DC1
>
> *Subscribe *tothe Access Now Express
> <https://www.accessnow.org/campaign/#sign-up>, our weekly
> newsletter//on digital rights
> *Sign up* for our action alerts <https://www.accessnow.org/campaign/>
>
> On 8 February 2016 at 17:40, Ali Hussein via kictanet
> <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke <mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>>
> wrote:
>
> True that Ebele!
>
> And thanks for the great session today - even though we didn't
> agree on a number of issues :-)
>
> I found that your engagement is a step in the right direction and
> one that local companies can learn from.
>
> *Ali Hussein*
> *Principal*
> *Hussein & Associates*
> +254 0713 601113 / 0770906375
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>
>
>
> "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and
> thinking what no one else has thought". ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 8 Feb 2016, at 5:21 PM, Ebele Okobi <ebeleokobi at fb.com
> <mailto:ebeleokobi at fb.com>> wrote:
>
>> I think this provides us with an excellent opportunity to see if
>> this decision has any impact, positive or negative, on the cost
>> of data, on competition in the market, and the number of people
>> connected. There's nothing better than evidence based policy
>> making. . .
>>
>> Ebele Okobi | Head of Public Policy, Africa
>>
>> m. +44 (0) 771 156 1315 <tel:+44%20%280%29%20771%20156%201315>
>>
>> 10 Brock Street | London | NW1 3FG
>>
>> ebeleokobi at fb.com <mailto:ebeleokobi at fb.com>
>>
>>
>> 6F376569-CC77-422B-BAD3-794055B1E02B
>>
>> On Feb 8, 2016, at 4:40 PM, Ali Hussein via kictanet
>> <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>> <mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>> wrote:
>>
>>> Listers
>>>
>>> This might be of interest to you.
>>>
>>> This is something that we all in Africa can learn from.
>>>
>>> *Ali Hussein*
>>> *Principal*
>>> *Hussein & Associates*
>>> +254 0713 601113 / 0770906375
>>>
>>> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>>>
>>> Skype: abu-jomo
>>>
>>> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__ke.linkedin.com_in_alihkassim&d=CwMFaQ&c=5VD0RTtNlTh3ycd41b3MUw&r=ArvepG4_wcNu_X9xi3nb_Xa9WsGLVfmK6mwPdVONOTE&m=aKhWPFY8Jw1ki12xz7Yv3qhBFofAvQLLyGNrIcAvAlA&s=9Nb3o5Pt8DM6s6h9k3YYfOMQDgu-S4rwio7ba66OaZM&e=>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and
>>> thinking what no one else has thought". ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
>>> Begin forwarded message:
>>>
>>>> *From:* parminder <parminder at itforchange.net
>>>> <mailto:parminder at itforchange.net>>
>>>> *Date:* 8 February 2016 at 2:14:50 PM EAT
>>>> *To:* "global-nn at lists.riseup.net
>>>> <mailto:global-nn at lists.riseup.net>"
>>>> <global-nn at lists.riseup.net <mailto:global-nn at lists.riseup.net>>
>>>> *Subject:* *[global-nn] Indian regulator bans differential
>>>> pricing, including zero rating*
>>>> *Reply-To:* parminder <parminder at itforchange.net
>>>> <mailto:parminder at itforchange.net>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/WhatsNew/Documents/Regulation_Data_Service.pdf
>>>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.trai.gov.in_WriteReadData_WhatsNew_Documents_Regulation-5FData-5FService.pdf&d=CwMFaQ&c=5VD0RTtNlTh3ycd41b3MUw&r=ArvepG4_wcNu_X9xi3nb_Xa9WsGLVfmK6mwPdVONOTE&m=aKhWPFY8Jw1ki12xz7Yv3qhBFofAvQLLyGNrIcAvAlA&s=Y-j2TxF0FxxmY9ZNyVg35fP7OvJg4pJIcrIJFyY3b5w&e=>
>>>>
>>>> shorter press release is at
>>>> http://trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/PressRealease/Document/Press_Release_No_13%20.pdf
>>>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__trai.gov.in_WriteReadData_PressRealease_Document_Press-5FRelease-5FNo-5F13-2520.pdf&d=CwMFaQ&c=5VD0RTtNlTh3ycd41b3MUw&r=ArvepG4_wcNu_X9xi3nb_Xa9WsGLVfmK6mwPdVONOTE&m=aKhWPFY8Jw1ki12xz7Yv3qhBFofAvQLLyGNrIcAvAlA&s=oHP83NZqqGTqHjKEYsaFtQUTg4nRa7-GDXDSVC8naU0&e=>
>>>>
>>>> Can be considered as a path breaking regulatory move, which may
>>>> set the trend for developing countries...
>>>>
>>>> parminder
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> platform for people and institutions interested and involved in
> ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst
> for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT
> enabled growth and development.
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> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable
> behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's
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