Net Neutrality is current a hotly debated topic all around the world, especially in USA. One can find all the coverage regarding Net Neutrality in US from top rated websites, so for a change I decided to cover Net Neutrality in emerging countries.
To start off, it is important to remember here that the socio-economic scenario of emerging countires is vastly different from that of developed nations. It is also important to note that the concept of Net Neutrality is not well known amongst citizens/netizens of Emerging countries. In fact certain countries like India have no laws regarding Net Neutrality. In this post I will detail who is breaking Net Neutrality in emerging countries and the consequences it can have.
1. Who is breaking Net Neutrality ?
When it comes to emerging countries, the biggest opponents of Net Neutrality are internet based companies and telecom operators. Internet based companies such as Facebook or Google have or are in the process of breaking Net Neutrality in emerging countries.
2. How are they breaking it ?
2.a Facebook -
Facebook has already broken Net Neutrality in emerging countries through its
internet.org initiative. At first
internet.org was supposed to be a programme where Facebook along with other members (Nokia, Qualcomm etc) of
internet.org would partner with telecom operators around the world and make access to Facebook, Wikipedia, a search engine and some other websites free of cost. That did not seem anti-competitive in nature and indeed when
internet.org first rolled out in Zambia the only websites accessible were
AccuWeather
Airtel
eZeLibrary
Facebook
Facts for Life
Google Search
Go Zambia Jobs
Kokoliko
MAMA (Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action)
Messenger
Wikipedia
WRAPP (Women’s Rights App)
Zambia uReport.
The real problem with
internet.org came when the platform launched in India. When
internet.org launched in India, a lot of commercial websites were made part of the initiative. These websites were clearly not required by a first time internet user. When
internet.org was launched in India the following websites were a part of it:
Aaj Tak
AccuWeather
amarujala.comAP Speaks
Babajob
BabyCenter & MAMA
BBC News
Bing Search
Cleartrip
Daily Bhaskar
Dictionary.comESPN Cricinfo
Facebook
Facts for Life
Girl Effect
HungamaPlay
IBNLive
iLearn
India Today
Internet Basics
Jagran
Jagran Josh
Maalai Malar
Maharashtra Times
Malaria No More
manoramanews.comMessenger
NDTV
Newshunt
OLX
Reliance Astrology
Reuters Market Lite
Socialblood
Times of India
TimesJobs
Translator
Wikipedia
wikiHow
One must note how Facebook has cunningly removed Google as the search engine and replaced it with Bing. This has been done despite the fact that Google provides much better search results than Bing for local Indian content.
One must also note how for every sector except jobs only one website is representing the sector. I will list a few examples.
In case of search for example only Bing is present although Google is a much viable alternative but is not supported.
When its comes to streaming music only
hungama.com is present although
saavn.com and
gaana.com are comparable alternatives which are not supported.
In case of booking travel tickets only
cleartrip.com is present although
makemytrip.com and irctc are comparable alternatives which are not supported.
The present structure of
internet.org is such that it promotes monopoly in a particular segment and is a clear violation of Net Neutrality.
2.b Google -
Google is yet to break Net Neutrality in a proper manner but has plans to do the same. Most people might remember Google's ambitious Android One programme. The programme was nothing else but a method by which Google wanted to make sure that Android handsets shipping in emerging countries had their vision of Android and their apps pre-installed. The method would also effectively allow Google to make sure that competing services don't ship on Android devices as one of the conditions for Android One devices was a bloat-free version of Android. Now a bloat free version meant that Google+ which Indians hardly use should be pre-installed whereas something like Facebook which Indians use a lot would classify as bloat. Anyhow with that said Google's Android One project did not pick steam. Google isn't ready to give up hence they decided to subsidize data usage for certain websites for Android One users. This is somewhat similar to
internet.org except where
internet.org is accessible to everyone, Google's version of
internet.org would only be accessible to its Android One users. Android Authority has an excellent write up detailing Google's upcoming system which one can check out from
here. Clearly this again is a violation of Net Neutrality.
2c. Telecom operators
By helping Facebook and Google telecom operators are already a part of the crime. But they want to be Net Neutrality violator themselves. Operators have long violated Net Neutrality but hardly anyone has taken notice. In a bid to add data customers as quickly as possible most Indian telecom operators have specialized data packs for Whatsapp or Facebook alone, leaving competing services such as Hike or Google + in the cold. Think of it somewhat similar to T-Mobile's music streaming programme which would only work with Spotify and other streaming services aren't supported. Another example would be to imagine Sprint launchimg a dedicated Netflix pack at 20$ leaving out Hulu Plus and others.
3. Consequences -
3.a. Impact on competition -
To start with, violation of Net Neutrality is obviously harmful for the competition. The biggest losers in this case tend to be the small websites that don't have the financial muscle to be a part of something like internet org.
Take my blog for example. I am a tech loving guy who likes blogging. I have opened up a blog on blogger and write tech articles. As of now my blog is very small and the chances of my blog being a part of
internet.org are very slim. If
internet.org was to ever include a source for tech related information it would probably be some top rated tech website like Zdnet or Cnet. If Zdnet becomes a part of
internet.org, access to Zdnet will be free of cost whereas to access my blog a person might have to pay normal data rates.
Since emerging countries are really cost sensitive, people would prefer visiting Zdnet and increasingly ignore a small unknown blog like mine.
What could happen to my blog under
internet.org would vey well be applicable to almost all other small websites. For example a blog providing travel related info could be over shadowed by a travel website, a startup e-commerce website could be over shadowed by something like
amazon.com.
3.b Limit the meaning of Internet
Apart from having a negative impact on competition, Net Neutrality can possibly limit the meaning of Internet for millions of people.
Internet penetration in most emerging countries except for a few like China is very low. The reason for the low internet penetration is not devices. The growth of smartphone shipments in most emerging countries is meteoric. For example some like India and Africa are witnessing smartphone shipment growth rate of 100% and above on a Y-o-Y basis. Clearly citizens of emerging countries are transitioning from feature phones to smartphones at a rapid rate and this transition would only accelerate giving the rapidly reducing cost of smartphones.
The real obstacle for internet penetration in emerging countries are the prohibitive data rates. I would agree that in countries like India data plans are really cheap. A person could get 1GB of data for just 3-4$,but the issue here is unlike a 50$ smartphone which would be a one time investment , a 3-4$ data plan is a recurring investment that occurs every month. Over a period of 3 years a person might end up spending 100$ or so on data plans which would be twice the cost of his/her smartphone. The lack of enough disposable income makes a recurring investment like a data plan seem like a luxury whereas through continuous savings every month people are able to gather enough money to make a one time investment like a smartphone.
To cut the long story short the condition of emerging markets is such that people are able to make small one time investments (smartphones) but any form of recurring investment (data plans) becomes a luxury and hence many people avoid it.
Internet.org targets people like these who own a smartphone but don't have a data plan. Most people using
internet.org use internet for the very first time and don't have any clue of how vast the internet is. The users of
internet.org are confined to the selected websites and think that the 20-30 websites of
internet.org is what the internet is made up of. Everytime a user tries to jump across the walled garden of
internet.org, they are stopped from doing so because of the data charges applicable for
non-internet.org websites.
If this continues over a period of time, the user would make
internet.org his or her definition internet and would never try to explore outside the walled gardens of
internet.org. This in turn would restrict the meaning of internet for the user.
4. Awareness levels
To start with, literacy levels themselves are very low amongst citizens of developing countries. Even amongst the literates, people who have received formal education is very low. To further make matters worse, a very small section of the educated population actually know what Net Neutrality means and its wide ranging implications. If I were to take a guess I would say that less than 5% of the population in emerging countries know about Net Neutrality.
What is the Government doing
For the most part governments are not at all bothered about Net Neutrality. Most emerging countries have no rules regarding Net Neutrality. According to my research only three countries namely Netherlands, Brazil and Chile have legal rules on Net Neutrality. The lack of legal rules and of awareness regarding Net Neutrality in emerging countries gives an easy opportunity to telecom operators and other internet companies like Facebook or Google to commercially exploit the citizens of emerging countries with almost zero resistance.
Conclusion
Net Neutrality is a very important topic and one that must not be taken lightly. Many developed nations are already in the process of implementing strong Net Neutrality rules or at least have strong awareness amongst the general public. The real worry about Net Neutrality should be in emerging countries where the lack of laws and awarness amongst people coupled with lazy and corrupt governments provide a perfect base for the formation of a closed internet whose various aspects can be controlled by certain multi-billion $ companies if quick action is not taken.
Part 2 :
Data uptake in India
