There is a lot more to the internet beyond Facebook and the handful of services that will be provided for free via Free Basics. Only 252 million of India’s 1.3 billion people have Internet access, making it a growth market for firms including Google and Facebook. However, Net Neutrality advocates ask why Facebook isn’t pressing telecom companies to reduce their price of data. Why has Facebook chosen the current model for Free Basics, which gives users a selection of around a hundred sites (including a personal blog and a real estate company homepage), while rejecting the option of giving the poor free access to the open, plural and diverse web?
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Tottenham could take the title, says Everton boss Roberto Martinez
During his first season with Spurs, he guided the White Hart Lane outfit to the final of the League Cup, losing 2-0 to Chelsea. In the place we are after 19 games it means we are in a very good way and our decisions were good.
Apart from India, Facebook has partnered with telecom carriers to offer “Free Basics” in several African countries and some countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
MARKET & ECONOMICSSaudi Arabia’s riyal under pressure after austerity budget
Jadwa expects the oil sector to grow by a meagre 0.9 per cent on an average crude production of 10.2 million barrels per day. The IMF has said that if Saudi Arabia raised its fuel prices to Gulf levels, it will save around billion annually.
Free Basics was available in Egypt on Etisalat Egyptian network.
Star Wars fans attempt to set record for largest lightsaber battle
At the White House, a beeping R2-D2 and two Stormtroopers surprised reporters with a quick appearance in the briefing room. Nostalgia, plus a carefully planned, months-long release of film trailers and character profiles boosted interest.
Those campaigning to protect net neutrality in India suggest data providers should not favour some online services over others by offering cheaper or faster access. The regulator has given the public till January 7 to share feedback.
In December, the telecoms regulator in India asked mobile networks to suspend the scheme in the country while it considered granting it specific approval.
In another attack on freedom of expression in Egypt under president Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, Free Basics, a Facebook program operated by the Internet.org initiative and providing free access to Internet services such as Wikipedia, Bing search, and BBC News has been shut down. “We can receive education and healthcare and communication and access to new services”, he said in the video post.
If Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is to have its way with Free Basics, it will have to address all the net neutrality concerns already raised. He called “Free Basics” a first step toward “digital equality”.
“Since Facebook can access un-encrypted contents of users” “basic” services, either we get to consider health apps to be not basic, or risk revealing health records of all Indians to Facebook.
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Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart that has so far maintained its silence on the ongoing debate over India’s take on net neutrality.
