that his 3-year-old effort to bring the developing
world online has reached millions of people in
some of the world’s poorest nations.
But a central element of his Internet.org
campaign was controversial even before it
was shut down in a key market this month.
Indian regulators banned one of the pillars of
the campaign, a service known as Free Basics,
because it provided access only to certain preapproved
services - including Facebook - rather
than the full Internet.
That leaves the social media mogul at a
crossroads. Though he has vowed not to give
up, Zuckerberg hasn’t said whether he’ll alter
his approach. Facebook declined to make
executives available for comment. Zuckerberg
could shed light on his plans when he speaks
Monday at Mobile World Congress, an annual
industry event in Barcelona, Spain, where he has
touted Internet.org in previous years.
“Everyone in the world should have access to
the Internet,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook
this month, arguing that online connections can
improve lives and fuel economic development.
To achieve that goal, Zuckerberg has highflying
dreams for someday providing Internet
connections through a network of drones,
satellites and lasers. But his near-term plan is
simpler: Facebook works with wireless carriers
in poorer nations to let people use streamlined
versions of Facebook and certain other online
services, without paying data charges.
While the drones may someday connect people
in areas too remote for cables or cell towers, Free
Basics is intended for people who live in areas
with Internet service but still can’t afford it.
A low-income resident of urban Manila, for
example, can use Free Basics to view the
Philippines’ GMA News site. “He can be informed.
He can research. He can read the news,” Ederic
Eder of GMA News said.
The program varies by country, in offerings
and effectiveness.
In South Africa, for instance, Facebook partnered
with the third-largest wireless carrier, Cell C. But
Johannesburg resident Priscilla de Klerk said she
couldn’t get Free Basics to work on her phone.
“Cell C is much cheaper as far as everything else
is concerned, but their free Facebook is not a
reality,” she said.
Last fall, Facebook announced a major
expansion in Africa, where another regional
carrier, Bharti Airtel, said it will offer Free Basics
in 17 countries.
“They’re getting a lot of traction in Africa,” said
Danson Njue, a Kenya-based telecom analyst
with the Ovum research firm. Tech rivals Google
and Microsoft also have programs to expand
Internet access, he noted, but their approaches
are content neutral and involve extending
networks to underserved areas.
Facebook doesn’t pay wireless companies for
the cost of Free Basics. Carriers make money
if new users eventually move to a paid data
plan. Facebook also says it makes no money,
as it doesn’t show ads, though Zuckerberg has
conceded it benefits from gaining users in the
long run.
While the company hasn’t released detailed
usage figures, Facebook says Free Basics has
brought more than 19 million people online
for the first time. That counts any user who
didn’t have Internet access before, regardless of
whether they’re currently active.
On the Internet.org website, mixed in with
videos about impoverished students using
Free Basics to study and laborers starting small
businesses, Facebook boasts more than 1 billion
people “have access” to the service. That’s the
combined population of regions where it’s
available, not the number of users.
Free Basics is now in 36 countries. It was
suspended last year in Egypt, on the
anniversary of anti-government protests that
were organized partly on Facebook. An earlier
version of Free Basics, known as Facebook Zero,
was shuttered three years ago in Chile, after
authorities said Internet providers couldn’t
offer discounts for accessing some content but
not others.
Similar concerns turned India into the program’s
biggest battleground.
Free Basics enrolled more than 1 million Indians
in its first year, according to Facebook’s wireless
partner, Reliance Communications. But critics,
including many in the country’s growing tech
community, complained it was a predatory
scheme: If low-income users couldn’t afford
anything besides Free Basics, opponents said,
that meant Facebook was deciding which online
services the nation’s poor could use.
“The government should not allow big players
to monopolize the Internet,” said Manu Sharma,
who runs a software development company in
New Delhi.
Facebook responded last fall by announcing
it would open Free Basics to any app that met
its technical requirements for systems with
limited capacity. Zuckerberg also changed
the program’s name to Free Basics, after critics
complained “Internet.org” sounded like a
nonprofit, when it’s part of a for-profit company
(the overall campaign is still called Internet.org).
But opponents still worry that Facebook
could change requirements at any time, force
competitors to pay higher rates to get into the
program, or even block services that run afoul of
powerful politicians.
“The fact that it could decide what apps could
be hosted ... was a huge problem for me,” said
Basit Zaidi, a New Delhi attorney.
As Indian regulators began studying the issue,
Facebook drew more resentment with a publicrelations
blitz that critics called heavy-handed
and patronizing. The regulators effectively
banned Free Basics after concluding Internet
providers shouldn’t be allowed to charge
different rates for certain services, because that
discriminates against other content.
U.S. regulators have endorsed the concept of
“net neutrality,” which says all websites and
apps should be treated equally by Internet
providers. They’re now studying whether “zero
rating” programs, which offer some content
for free, should be allowed. Net neutrality
supporters are hoping India’s decision will
influence other nations.
Facebook has also launched a program that
helps Internet providers offer reliable Wi-Fi
service in underserved areas at affordable rates
and without limits on content. The program’s
been limited to tests in a few countries.
The giant tech company could use its resources
and clout with carriers to offer a similar wireless
service, perhaps at limited speeds or volume,
but without any restrictions on content,
said Josh Levy of Access Now, a nonprofit
that supports net neutrality. Zuckerberg has
suggested in the past that such a service would
be too expensive and difficult to offer.
Some Indians, meanwhile, say their country
could have benefited from Free Basics.
“Ultimately, something is better than nothing,
even if that something is flawed,” said Uday
Singh Tomar, a software engineer in New Delhi.
“If a person is hungry and getting nothing, a free
meal is good enough.”
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