Just wondering about how smart we are in Nigeria in regards to the free basics thing.
Internet really sucks in Nigeria and its a nightmare but are we really ready to trade our freedom for something better?
Iāve been in India for a very long time and I can tell you India fought so much to block free basics. Facebook off course fought back by giving popups forms to everyone in India to beg TRIA to allow free basics. India still won. Although I donāt know the full details of free basics and how it works, but if India fought for it, Nigeria should have. Iām basing my reason on the sole fact that i strongly believe Nigeria and India are similar in almost everything except religion. From the development in the country to the way we reason and being fantastically corrupt, India and Nigeria is the same, even the startup scene with exceptions to a few Unicorns. The only real difference I see is that Most parts of India have access to 24/7 electricity. the rest are the same.
1 Like
NCC has been fantastic so far, both in regulations and in allowing fair play. Makes me wonder how they will react to this.
Haba! this is the very reason Nigeria shouldānt take same stand as the Indiansā my guess is, it wasnāt of the interest of the fantastically selfish group in India, so they have to fight it out.
From what i have read about the Free basics it sound interesting; enabling people have access to some app without internet data. imagine if most nigerians can access whatapp without data, that means most messages and calls will be done via whatzapp. I guess you can imagine the implication of that, MTN,GLO and the rest will most likely spend huge to sabotage the "free basics.
Not sure what youāve read, but āfantastically selfishā is a very strange description. More like unselfish, if you ask me.
In any case, I think Free Basics will go ahead in Nigeria. Not because the fundamentals are any different from India, but the folks in charge here are frankly incompetent. Incompetence breeds arbitrary policies like banning of drones, proposed banning of the use of foreign server/domain hosting cos etc. Itās like weāre blessed with the gift of perpetual self harm. Free Basics will be no different.
In terms of the key players affected i.e. startups & local ecosystem. Itās fair to say there will be a good mix of people for and against it. Thatās understandable. What is pitiful is that we might not actually have a robust discussion, about the merits/dangers of Free Basics. Instead and as usual, just sell ourselves short. With no remorse. And without looking back.
Of course, itās just another day in Nigeria. Weāre famous short cuts experts, who never think of the long game.
5 Likes
As true, as sad!
Interesting. Have you got a reference for this? With MSFT and IBM actively selling cloud services to some of the largest government agencies, I think the idea is DOA.
You can read more from Shittu here
Not to digress from this topic, another thing I find strange is the concept of guidelines and specifications by Facebook, without considering motives. I mean Zuck was answering questions just yesterday because of conservative bias in ātrending topicsā. Because as we now know, everyoneās got an agenda. Everytime.
Of course, they told us āsoftware is the new oilā, and now weāve been asked to hand over the oil fields. This must be for our own good. I mean it must be cool, right?
And you know what I found shocking most about the launch of Free Basics in Nigeria, is that there was scant or no mention of India in most of the local reports. Like India never happened! Weāre like the students who turned up for exams and refused to study. Ignore past facts and experiences. Because who has time to grasp the nuances and be prepared.
[sidebar: one of the better articles after the FB event moderated by @lordbanks was by @SkweiRd . Although It attempted to touch on net neutrality (but simply linked to a google definition when eons of materials are available), glossed over recent concerns and devoted attention to self reference, on why itās positive development. Osarumen, Iām sure you will play a better devilās advocate in your next pieceš]
So yes we all got collectively dizzy & euphoric about a mention of some of our founders, but is that all it takes? I mean Zuck has not even flown into Nigeria to wine, dine & beg for us to sell ourselves short (like he did in India). Yet weāre happy to do so over a honorary mention? Sometimes weāre beyond parody.
7 Likes
Thanks, Papa for the feedback. Two things. First, was that I was pressed for time so I didnāt say as much as I wanted to in the article or find the links to the articles I read leading up to the event. You know how it goes in this media business. Second is that all I wrote, I wrote from my head, ergo from my point of view. I saw an article on Techpoint a few days ago that holds a similar position (though a lot less informed than you about Net Neutrality, or Free Basics, or anything for that matter), and Iāll say now (more or less) what I said then.
We know that people must get connected to the internet (recommended reading: Mark Zuckerbergās Is Connectivity A Human Right? article). We know that the internet infrastructure/bandwidth they use once online must be paid for. We know that the demographic at the bottom of the pyramid either cannot afford internet connectivity or do not see it as important enough to pay for it (because they donāt know any better).
While Iām skeptical about having Facebook as a gatekeeper, I know that the criteria for being listed on the platform is publicly available, and if a potential competitor (lol) has met the criteria and still gets rejected, and they suspect Facebook is being nefarious, they can seek redress based on the publicly available criteria. Thatād be a different case entirely. But as far as I know, Free Basics is open to anyone who offers a stipped down version of their site.
During the event, while Emeka Afigbo was speaking, hereās what I wrote down in my Notes app:
While itās great to build castles in the air and talk about bringing the next billion people online, bandwidth will be consumed and resources will be expended to deliver this service. Who pays for all that? How do they recoup their investment? Do we expect carriers to bear the financial brunt because of a potential increase in their user base? Does Facebook subsidize bandwidth costs in any way? Or the entire thing funded by delivering ads in everyoneās sites?
After the Free Basics fireside chat, I spoke to Emeka Afigbo, and during our conversation I asked him the questions above and then some, and he said that Facebook does not serve ads to fund the project, or subsidize it. Itās the telcos who bear the cost of the bandwidth (and that may be why there havenāt been many takers around the world asides from Bharti Airtel who probably see it as a global customer acquisition ploy) and they are only doing so because of the access it gives them to users they can then sell other services to.
Of course, Facebook has direct economic interests in bringing more people online - increasing their already massive user base. I donāt think thatās a terrible motive to have, and Facebook is hardly the only party towing this line. Google Free Zone and Wikipedia Zero can be accused of the Net-Neutrality-violation crime, but Iām not sure how else companies that exist to make profit are incentivised to pay for internet access to people who canāt afford it. Net Neutrality will not pay for the bandwidth these people will consume while drinking the web through a straw.
Am I being naive? Itās entirely possible. But I havenāt seen anyone come up with any more reasonable ideas to get people connected to the internet than the model Facebook/Internet.org is proposing. The Nigerian government wonāt do it. Nigerian companies wonāt (or donāt have the scale to) do it. So who will? Any better ideas?
1 Like
Tthe contributions so far cover the major thinking points, so that we get the best out of whatever deal we settle for while adopting free basics. In case one needs a detailed (though biased) breakdown of the implications of Free Basics, you may settle down and read this link. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/facebook-responds-free-basics-challenge-duel-umm-i-accept-murthy
I was directed there by one the key members of ISPON.
I also went through a policy document used to discontinue the service in India @ this link: http://www.trai.gov.in/content/news/91358_0.aspx
Which leads to an issue Iām unclear about. Iām aware we have policy advocates for the purpose of interacting with legislators on issues affecting our technology ecosystem, but Iām not sure who they are.
I do understand the time constraints with needing to turn in a hot story, and think you did a decent enough job. So well done.
But to expand your research purposes (since youāre quoting Zuck himself. I donāt know if heās a bit biased. BTW, the Techpoint article was good), see below which gives some indication of what Free Basics really meant in India.
Now below leaves me slightly worried.
Personally, I feel this logic is intrinsically flawed. It holds that the best way to solve a long term issue, is to only go with the available option. We have not run out of options. Instead weāve been provided oneoption and our position weirdly seems to be, this is the only option.
1 Like
Strong argument but flawed conclusion.
To put your conclusion in proper perspective: āThere are clear records that a woman will suffer domestic violence in the future if she goes ahead & marries her current fiancĆ©, but since heās not currently doing it & heās the only man around right now, itās OK for her to go ahead with the marriage.ā
If you look at it that way, youāll see how flawed your conclusion is.
Usually Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) advocates for these kinds of things locally. They have put out some tweets urging the right authorities to scrutinise this properly. We all know that this will be ignored as usual, but we can ensure that it isnāt. However, to do this we first have to lose the idea that because this is the only option on the table, we canāt get something better.
If we look beyond the bias of Zuckās shoutout to our friends & of our senior oga holding an important position at Facebook (all due respect for my big oga Emeka Afigbo), we can pull out the right info around Indiaās actions (so that wonāt be naĆÆve anymore) & request that our government do the right thing about this.
1 Like
Microsoftās idea.
Thought Iād drop this here to enrich the debate about options available for proliferating the Internet.
3 Likes
This TV white Space unlimited internet service is 12k monthly while free basics is FREE!
You forgot to add that āFREEā gives you access to a few handpicked websites while 12K gives you access to over 7 Billion websites of your choice - including the nocturnal and private modes ones.
So which one do you think adds more value?
2 Likes
So what happens to Free Basics if, in the near future, due to some emerging technology, the internet becomes free?
The fact still remains that the other paid service is like every other internet provider since its not free, but FREE basics gives access to vital web portals that less privileged people need.
You call it āvital web portalsā but I call it communist styled censorship disguised as āFreeāā¦
Its got it advantages and disadvantages but take it or leave it,it will do more good than harm.