
Facebook's Free Basics Shuts Down in Egypt - tdaltonc
http://gizmodo.com/a-week-after-india-banned-it-facebooks-free-basics-s-1750299423
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yalogin
I don't understand how Mark could propose this with a straight face when he
himself is a proponent against Comcast and others trying to do a similar thing
in the US. Does not matter if its free or not (there is no such thing as free
btw). As long as he gets his own ad dollars he is fine with carving out a
special "internet path" to his users. Bad. Worse still, he is doing this piggy
backing on "helping the poor" story.

Now I wonder how free and open his other internet through blimps idea was,
that was floated a while ago.

~~~
pbalau
Let me ask you a question: the Free Basics is targeted to people that can't
afford another way to get internet. What will showing ads to these people
accomplish?

~~~
yalogin
Ad dollars were the wrong choice of words, its more gaining mind share and
users.

So do you really believe FB did it for the good of the people and that this
free basics thing is good? What do you think a poor guy without access to
proper resources like food, education will gain by sharing likes on FB?

~~~
samfisher83
Obviously facebook is motivated by ad dollars, but people get some benefit out
of it. Maybe that poor guy will see some image that makes him laugh.

~~~
fucking_tragedy
I don't think access to cat pictures justifies shitting all over a country's
chances of building out proper infrastructure just to provide a profitable but
censored service we'd never accept ourselves.

Net neutrality was the last bastion of freedom online, but it's somehow too
high of a standard for societies with lower rates of internet access?

~~~
hellbanner
Speaking of shitting over a country's chances of building out proper
infrastructure, have you read
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452287081](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452287081)
Confessions of an Economic Hitman?

It's all about the USA doing exactly that, by promising massive GDP gains.
When they fail to net the profit required to pay the contractors, the
contractors take over the infrastructure -- netting the USA dozens of
corporate-owned electrical infrastructure all over the world, chiefly South
America & the Middle East (!!)

~~~
fucking_tragedy
I picked that up a few months ago but haven't had the time (management skills)
to start it yet.

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scope
African here: I'm really really glad more and more counties are seeing behind
the facade Facebook is putting.

(Earlier post)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10816991](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10816991)

~~~
tdaltonc
Mind if I ask how you usually access HN? Mobile? A mac you own? An internet
cafe? Do you know anyone who would consider something like free basic? What's
their story? I've heard basically nothing from anyone who might use facebook-
basics (unless they are being used as a propaganda tool), and I'd love to.

~~~
wsgeorge
So I just created an HN account to answer this. I'm in Accra, Ghana.

> Mind if I ask how you usually access HN?

My PC, with WiFi at home.

> Do you know anyone who would consider something like free basic?

I would. Already, mobile networks have Facebook and Wikipedia (iirc) zero-
rated. Meaning you pay nothing to use those services. My startup is trying to
get zero-rating on Vodafone to encourage our customers to use our service.

Having free access to some useful sites is a plus. Having my Internet
restricted to those sites is a minus.

~~~
tdaltonc
Thanks!

What is the process of getting zero-rating like?

Are you glad that zero rating exists in your market?

~~~
wsgeorge
> What is the process of getting zero-rating like?

I don't know. As far as I can tell (what we're doing) we're speaking to the
telcos directly. There's no formal process for getting zero-rating. We have an
investor/incubator relationship with Vodafone Ghana. Zero-rating our service
is just one of the things we're negotiating.

> Are you glad that zero rating exists in your market?

Uhh...I should put my current feelings in context.

I didn't care much 2-3yrs ago because these were marketed as carrier promos,
and telcos in Ghana have a bad reputation already. It was none of my business
until word went round that MTN (the largest in Ghana, huge across Africa) will
start charging special rates for using certain apps like WhatsApp, Instagram,
the usual.

The response in our small tech community was mixed. A lot of people I asked
weren't aware, but there few that were, were truly outraged.

I didn't follow the news but it seemed other telcos started moving in that
direction, then backed down. All the while, 0.facebook.com was still promoted
on billboards in Accra.

So it's two things: you can get useful services for free (so you remain
subscribed to the network, I guess) or you can be charged _specially_ for
using a service that really matters.

My feelings are mixed at this point but I'd much rather prefer a neutral net
than one that can favour or penalize services. That leaves an uncomfortable
room for abuse.

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tdaltonc
If Marks not careful, he's going to talk himself right in to being a utility.

[http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-
page/free-...](http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/free-
basics-protects-net-neutrality/)

~~~
hellbanner
Great link.

Something that really bothers me about "Facebook Basic (Free Basic, Facebook..
what a fucking insidious name!)" is the lack of competition..

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gotchange
Here's the local perspective on the issue. They argue that Etisalat Egypt
didn't apply to renew the license and thus it expired and the regulator body
NTRA had to suspend it. Like I suspected, nothing about taking a stand on Net
Neutrality or unrestricted internet access, just business as usual in Egypt.

[http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFL3N14J3OQ2015123...](http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFL3N14J3OQ20151230)

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memracom
A lot of people seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what the
Internet is.

It begins with telecommunications, namely wires and radio links that carry
data. You cannot have an Internet without these. Normally these things are
provided by carriers, also called phone companies. ISPs used to be a separate
thing but nowadays, an ISP is just part of a wireline or wireless phone
company. Once you have a carrier who supplies you with connectivity using the
Internet protocols, you are on the Internet.

Beyond that there are millions of services accessible via the Internet and
Facebook is only one of millions. Many people never use Facebook because they
don't need it, or because they use an alternative service.

It costs money for carriers to provide Internet service and traditionally this
has been paid for by subscribers, not by Internet service companies. People
are creative, and in many countries, the billing plans for Internet services
are very different from the way it is done in your country. But it works,
because local carriers are motivated to understand their customers' needs.

Facebook can add nothing positive to the relationship between carriers and
their subscribers. It's that simple.

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dayon
This is very conspiratorial, but it'd be interesting if Facebook intentionally
shut this down to show its new user base how vital it is to their lives. By
giving new users a service and then taking it away, it could drum up support
for reinstatement. Wouldn't put it past Mark to pull something like that.

~~~
knughit
OK, mark is going to something bad, then stop doing it to prove how good it
is, to convince people to ask for it back. Because it is bad.

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13of40
Maybe someone figured out how to do TCP-over-newsfeed and broke their whole
model?

~~~
13of40
Actually, come to think about it, you could probably make a workable web proxy
through a Facebook account, as long as they didn't throttle how many cat
pictures you uploaded in a day. Have a server on the outside that will post
stenographied pictures of cats to your timeline every time you ask "Hey that
was an awesome cat picture, do you have any more LOL?
WW8gZGF3ZyB0aGlzIGlzIGEgYmFzZS02NCBlbmNvZGVkIEhUVFAgR0VUIHJlcXVlc3Qh".

