Subject: [gaia] Zero rating in kenya

From: Arjuna Sathiaseelan <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:56:03 +0000

So internet.org is zero rating some services in kenya..

The spooky and not nice part is it has removed google search which was
previously available in Tanzania and Zambia! The internet.org folks need to
understand this isn't about competition, its about working together to
alleviate and give a hand to lift those who are in need!

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/11/internet-orgs-app-heads-to-kenya-its-third-country-offering-free-access-to-facebook-and-other-services/

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From: Steve Song <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:26:29 +0000

Hi all,

I would be curious to know exactly why Google search has been removed.
Interesting too is the inclusion of the classified serivce, OLX.  Jana have
an article explaining why they think it is an important app to include
http://www.jana.com/blog/why-internet-org-is-backing-olx/

For me, a more interesting approach to zero-rating would be to convince an
MNO to generically zero-rate 2G services.  This idea occurred to me when I
learned that T-Mobile offers free 2G roaming internationally to its
customers.

This would be a more egalitarian approach to zero-rating that would benefit
all content providers and give them an incentive to make their apps as slim
(data-consumption-wise) as possible.  I suspect that this would benefit
MNOs as well, who have likely already recouped their investments in 2G
networks, by spurring adoption of 3G access as more people begin to value
online services.  Governments could offer flat incentives to operators to
zero-rate 2G.

Regards... Steve

On Wed Nov 12 2014 at 15:56:28 Arjuna Sathiaseelan <
[email-masked]> wrote:

> previously available in Tanzania and Zambia! The internet.org folks need
> to understand this isn't about competition, its about working together to
> _______________________________________________
> gaia mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/gaia
>

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From: Arjuna Sathiaseelan <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:43:22 +0000

Hello Steve,
I really like the idea of zero rating 2g services - this is like giving a
Lower quality service for free under the assumption that this will spur
take up of higher quality (3g in your case) and brand loyality. With 5g in
the pipeline which will encompass all these technologies, this will be a
promising approach.

This was the premise of our lcdnet work here in cambridge too:
http://www.sigcomm.org/sites/default/files/ccr/papers/2013/April/2479957-2479966.pdf

I agree that the govt can provide incentives (reduction of tax? Future
spectrum licenses?). But would such a model be sustainable for MVNOs?

Regards

On 20:26, Wed, 12 Nov 2014 Steve Song <[email-masked]> wrote:

> This would be a more egalitarian approach to zero-rating that would
> benefit all content providers and give them an incentive to make their apps
> as slim (data-consumption-wise) as possible.  I suspect that this would
> benefit MNOs as well, who have likely already recouped their investments in
> 2G networks, by spurring adoption of 3G access as more people begin to
> value online services.  Governments could offer flat incentives to
> operators to zero-rate 2G.
>
> Regards... Steve
>

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From: Helani Galpaya <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:47:47 +0000

I think Steve's idea is interesting to explore - even only 2G speed, it
would possibly be of huge benefit to those without any access. On the other
hand, is there still a lot of 2G around? Perhaps critical mass of 2G in
places like India, and African countries? Worth looking at the data.

In addition, I'm wondering about the possibility of pricing models where
anything that's 'one-click-away' is also free (so FB-zero/Wiki-zero are
free, as are the first link outside these apps the user clicks on.  from
there if the users go to other URLs it's charged).  Would this at least
start addressing the 'lesser experience' of the internet that concern many
pro-net-neutrality folk? . But I don't know if this feasible ( to monitor
and enforce real time, from the billing point of view) for at telco.

Finally a request for help - we are trying to identify any real-world
examples of users converting to paying mobile internet consumers after
experience zero-rated content. Berin Szoka pointed to a specific example
from Turkey (with high conversion rate for users) at the panel on Net
Neutrality at this year's IGF (if you have energy, transcript for the
session at
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/174-igf-2014/transcripts/1969-2014-09-03-ws208-net-neutrality-zero-rating-and-development-room-5)..
Do any members on this list know of other examples?   This is to set the
stage for a possible new research we are thinning of doing,  to look at the
evolution of users/user behaviour (pre-, during and post- their experience
with zero-rated content).

Best,
Helani

Helani Galpaya
LIRNEasia
www.lirneasia.net
+94 77 3600 766 (m-LK); +44 7415 865222 (m-UK)

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From: Henning G Schulzrinne <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:21:29 -0500

Given that spectrum is scarce in many countries, and 2G "refarming" seems
to be a common goal (given the much lower spectral efficiency of 2G
compared to 3G and 4G), I'm not sure this is anything but a very short term
strategy. If you really want to provide a low-grade "teaser" service, you
can just rate-limit the free service, similar to what (say) TMobile does
after you exceed your monthly bit budget. However, if you want to convert
people to using your paid service, making the trial experience really bad
doesn't seem like the most obvious way, but I'm not a marketing guy...

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From: Arjuna Sathiaseelan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 03:24:57 +0000

Hello Henning, all

 I think from an user experience point of view, I agree this may not
be a good experience. We wanted to understand this via our Public
Access WiFi Service project which was a limited socio-technological
study here in Nottingham, but we were not successful unfortunately
because of the vagaries of carrying out in the wild research and  from
a developed urban context where users have already perceived good
quality Internet access through other means (I will be presenting this
work at the ACM DEV next month:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~as2330/docs/dev12.pdf)

however it would be interesting to see how people in developing
regions perceive such a service? I see a free default lower quality
service (could also do by throttling as we did via PAWS or using 2G -
its interesting since in Australia and in the US, there are plans to
shut down 2G and repurpose it as you mentioned while in the developing
regions 80% of mobile connections are 2G) is no worse (infact better
in terms of user experience) than a zero rated service where you have
access to only a handful of sites or where access to the first-click
is free while for others you have to end up paying..

Infact I am wondering whether  an alternative model to repurposing 2G
would be  to create a new business model to connect the remaining
population by 2G for free and then the govt to subsidise the costs
associated with it (for reasons like this:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/digital-by-default-proposed-for-government-services).
Would be good to know which way would be beneficial for the network
operators.

btw I saw this interesting 2G free VoIP call app which is paid through
by ads: http://www.amgoo.com/blog/android-app-that-promises-free-voice-calls-via-2g-say-hello-to-nanu

Regards

On 13 November 2014 01:21, Henning G Schulzrinne <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Given that spectrum is scarce in many countries, and 2G "refarming" seems to
> be a common goal (given the much lower spectral efficiency of 2G compared to
> 3G and 4G), I'm not sure this is anything but a very short term strategy. If
> you really want to provide a low-grade "teaser" service, you can just
> rate-limit the free service, similar to what (say) TMobile does after you
> exceed your monthly bit budget. However, if you want to convert people to
> using your paid service, making the trial experience really bad doesn't seem
> like the most obvious way, but I'm not a marketing guy...
>
> On Wed, Nov 12, 2014 at 3:43 PM, Arjuna Sathiaseelan
> <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>
>> Hello Steve,
>> Lower quality service for free under the assumption that this will spur take
>> up of higher quality (3g in your case) and brand loyality. With 5g in the
>> pipeline which will encompass all these technologies, this will be a
>> promising approach.
>>

-- 
Arjuna Sathiaseelan | http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~as2330/

---

From: Henning G Schulzrinne <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 22:56:03 -0500

There seem to be five "entry level" approaches:

* 2G - short term solution, most likely, and not spectrally efficient; only
suited for small subset of (text-based) content and some low-bandwidth apps.

* 3G/4G with rate limiting - similar issues, but more flexible and
efficient than 2G, but probably better suited as a "bargain" or low-income
service to avoid cannibalizing other service offerings. (This is similar to
the Google "free" service or the EveryOneOn approach.)

* 3G/4G with limited data caps, such as the 250 MB "feature phone" plans.
This is similar to the US LifeLine model of a $9.25 government subsidy for
a limited bucket of voice minutes for eligible low-income consumers.

* zero-rating

* ad supported; unlikely that ads can support current bandwidth costs,
particularly since low-income consumers aren't likely to attract the
highest ad prices. (Zero-rating and ad-supported are obviously cousins.)

Plus, there are hybrid models where cellular only serves as basic
connectivity for messaging, maps and such, and Wi-Fi in public or other
places is used for side-loading high-volume data. Various people (including
my research group) have proposed mobility-based data transport
("delay-tolerant networking", "data couriers", etc.), using existing public
or private vehicles, such as buses and taxis. This can work if there's a
rural-urban divide in bandwidth availability.

Henning

On Wed, Nov 12, 2014 at 10:24 PM, Arjuna Sathiaseelan <
[email-masked]> wrote:

> by ads:
> http://www.amgoo.com/blog/android-app-that-promises-free-voice-calls-via-2g-say-hello-to-nanu
>
> Regards
>
>
> take

---

From: Rohan Mahy <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 21:53:07 -0800

Helani asked:
>is there still a lot of 2G around?

I believe that there is still a lot of 2G around in the kinds of places
where zero-rating is important. As a single data point, I recently found
out that about 3/4 of the coverage area in Liberia is 2G-only.  Certainly
where I lived in Democratic Republic of Congo (South Kivu and Bandundu
provinces) was 2G-only; 3G was only available in the regional capitals.
Many of these places are already uplink-constrained at 2G, so turning on 3G
doesn't necessarily accomplish anything.

Thanks,
-rohan

On Wed, Nov 12, 2014 at 12:47 PM, Helani Galpaya <[email-masked]>
wrote:

>> For me, a more interesting approach to zero-rating would be to convince
>> an MNO to generically zero-rate 2G services.  This idea occurred to me when
>> I learned that T-Mobile offers free 2G roaming internationally to its
>> customers.
>>
>>> previously available in Tanzania and Zambia! The internet.org folks
>>> need to understand this isn't about competition, its about working together
>>> to alleviate and give a hand to lift those who are in need!
>>>
>>>

---

From: Arjuna Sathiaseelan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 07:53:52 +0000

Excellent points Henning. +1

We could also add for the WiFi in public: WiFi crowdsharing over any
tech (similar to the FON/PAWS/Freifunk approach).

It will be interesting to see how the DTN solutions (data couriers
through buses/pigeons/donkeys) are really worthwhile: Keshav mentioned
that the reason why their DTN Internet Kiosks in India failed because
they didnt consider the pervasive impact cellular broadband would
have..

However saying that I believe that DTN would be an important tech for
providing flexible Internet services: timeshifting content (in the
presence of a network infrastructure) + opportunistic comms
platforms/apps.

So it will be interesting to see how DTN transitions from R&D into
actual deployments (and eventually successful adoption).

On 13 November 2014 03:56, Henning G Schulzrinne <[email-masked]> wrote:
> * 3G/4G with rate limiting - similar issues, but more flexible and efficient
> than 2G, but probably better suited as a "bargain" or low-income service to
> avoid cannibalizing other service offerings. (This is similar to the Google
> "free" service or the EveryOneOn approach.)
>
> This is similar to the US LifeLine model of a $9.25 government subsidy for a
> limited bucket of voice minutes for eligible low-income consumers.
>
> * zero-rating
>
> particularly since low-income consumers aren't likely to attract the highest
> ad prices. (Zero-rating and ad-supported are obviously cousins.)
>
> On Wed, Nov 12, 2014 at 10:24 PM, Arjuna Sathiaseelan

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From: Arjuna Sathiaseelan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 10:09:40 +0000

Great video/talk :)

http://vimeo.com/93176515

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From: Arjuna Sathiaseelan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 10:32:24 +0000

this is interesting:
Sprint tries a facebook+twitter wireless plan!

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/07/30/sprint-tries-a-facebook-only-wireless-plan/

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From: Henning G Schulzrinne <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 09:17:15 -0500

We have seen versions of relatively successful "DTN-like" solutions,
including the RedBox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbox) DVD video rental
services in many US grocery stores. They are apparently still particularly
popular in more rural areas, with poor broadband availability and quality.

Given the practical limitations of DTNs for real-world applications, I have
my doubts that they can be more than essentially the modern equivalent of
library buses. But library buses still play an important role in rural
areas, so having a bus with essentially all holdings, print or video, of
the country's central library is not a bad thing. (I'm ignoring legal
copyright constraints that, in practice, make it difficult to implement
this, at least today and at least in the US.)

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From: "Steven G. Huter" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:24:46 -0800 (PST)

On Thu, 13 Nov 2014, Arjuna Sathiaseelan wrote:

> regions perceive such a service?

Hello Arjuna

I helped establish the first TCP/IP link to Kenya back in 1995, and worked 
with folks in Lusaka on the first Internet connection to Zambia as well, 
so I asked some longtime Internet development colleagues about their 
experience thus far with this service.

In Zambia, for example, it is just with one provider (Airtel) and it only 
works if you have an existing data plan. It is reportedly supposed to 
provide a discount on your airtime data package by excluding data to 
certain sites (so just a bill reduction for existing customers).  Tech 
users there who tried it said that there was no way to even check to see 
if you were getting that traffic excluded from your data allowance, so 
have found it to be of limited value. For FB access, which is what many 
consumers will want, it's great. But it's not free, wide open Internet 
access and services.

Steve