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Ask HN: What do you guys think of zero rating?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you guys think of zero rating?

#41

Post by ForHackernews »

drpgq wrote: post #40
arihant wrote: post #17

Okay, this has nothing to do with supporting the poor as the comments here are suggesting, and as Airtel is trying to paint it. Poor can avail month-long 1GB data at $3 in India. All major providers have a plan that makes Facebook, Whatzapp, Google, Twitter, Instagram free for $0.5 a month. We already have plans for the poor, this is not it. This plan is the following - if you take Airtel Zero, you cannot access any…

Wow $3 for a GB of data? I'm paying more than three times as much in Canada and that's considered a good deal.

Canada happens to be a much wealthier country than India.

Re: Ask HN: What do you guys think of zero rating?

#42

Post by blumkvist »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #9

If I was developing an app in India, I would love to pay for my users data. This is a huge win for both companies and customers. My opinion is that this should have nothing to do with the "net neutrality" debate. It's just shifting more costs onto the host, instead of the user. The host already pays for all the servers and outgoing bandwidth, why is it a problem if they also pay for the other side of the connection?…

Wow such a beautiful world you live in. Unicorns, honest people, fairness and shit...

Please, wake up.

Re: Ask HN: What do you guys think of zero rating?

#43

Post by rjuyal »

drpgq wrote: post #40
arihant wrote: post #17

Okay, this has nothing to do with supporting the poor as the comments here are suggesting, and as Airtel is trying to paint it. Poor can avail month-long 1GB data at $3 in India. All major providers have a plan that makes Facebook, Whatzapp, Google, Twitter, Instagram free for $0.5 a month. We already have plans for the poor, this is not it. This plan is the following - if you take Airtel Zero, you cannot access any…

Wow $3 for a GB of data? I'm paying more than three times as much in Canada and that's considered a good deal.

$3/GB => 2G connection

Re: Ask HN: What do you guys think of zero rating?

#44

Post by arihant »

Grue3 wrote: post #39
arihant wrote: post #17

Okay, this has nothing to do with supporting the poor as the comments here are suggesting, and as Airtel is trying to paint it. Poor can avail month-long 1GB data at $3 in India. All major providers have a plan that makes Facebook, Whatzapp, Google, Twitter, Instagram free for $0.5 a month. We already have plans for the poor, this is not it. This plan is the following - if you take Airtel Zero, you cannot access any…

The difference is marginal. With $0.5/$3 plan, if the person is poor, they can't afford to go to expensive websites, so they're still locked to the cheap websites. It's still a "net neutrality" situation and the two plans have the same effect in practice. The only solution is to make the entire Internet free for everyone, which is, of course, not happening.

It's not a scheme for people struggling for food. Airtel Zero is only for companies offering Android and iPhone apps. If a person can afford a $120 phone at minimum, they can pay $3 a month. The "poor" is a marketing stunt here. In no way will this scheme make internet accessible for the next half billion in India.

Re: Ask HN: What do you guys think of zero rating?

#45

Post by notahacker »

drpgq wrote: post #40
arihant wrote: post #17

Okay, this has nothing to do with supporting the poor as the comments here are suggesting, and as Airtel is trying to paint it. Poor can avail month-long 1GB data at $3 in India. All major providers have a plan that makes Facebook, Whatzapp, Google, Twitter, Instagram free for $0.5 a month. We already have plans for the poor, this is not it. This plan is the following - if you take Airtel Zero, you cannot access any…

Wow $3 for a GB of data? I'm paying more than three times as much in Canada and that's considered a good deal.

$3 a GB is not cheap when it's 10% of your monthly income, which is the case for somewhere between a quarter and a half of Indian citizens on a dollar a day, depending on whose statistics you regard as the most representative and accurate. And that's a number which has fallen heavily in recent years.

That certainly puts things into perspective when talking about the downside to requiring people pay for bandwidth even if the app-owners want them to have it for free...

Re: Ask HN: What do you guys think of zero rating?

#46

Post by arihant »

notahacker wrote: post #45
drpgq wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow $3 for a GB of data? I'm paying more than three times as much in Canada and that's considered a good deal.

$3 a GB is not cheap when it's 10% of your monthly income, which is the case for somewhere between a quarter and a half of Indian citizens on a dollar a day, depending on whose statistics you regard as the most representative and accurate. And that's a number which has fallen heavily in recent years. That certainly puts things into perspective when talking about the downside to requiring people pay for bandwidth even…

That quarter and a half billion cannot afford a smartphone yet. So mobile data scheme for apps is not a conversation about them. It is peanuts for people who can afford a smartphone.

Re: Ask HN: What do you guys think of zero rating?

#48

Post by notahacker »

arihant wrote: post #46
notahacker wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$3 a GB is not cheap when it's 10% of your monthly income, which is the case for somewhere between a quarter and a half of Indian citizens on a dollar a day, depending on whose statistics you regard as the most representative and accurate. And that's a number which has fallen heavily in recent years. That certainly puts things into perspective when talking about the downside to requiring people pay for bandwidth even…

That quarter and a half billion cannot afford a smartphone yet. So mobile data scheme for apps is not a conversation about them. It is peanuts for people who can afford a smartphone.

I wouldn't call $3 per gigabyte "peanuts" to someone buying the ~$30 extreme low-end Android phones, or indeed a much poorer person that possesses a battered second-hand feature phone with a Facebook app, which could at least theoretically be covered with this sort of program.

Re: Ask HN: What do you guys think of zero rating?

#49

Post by arihant »

notahacker wrote: post #48
arihant wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That quarter and a half billion cannot afford a smartphone yet. So mobile data scheme for apps is not a conversation about them. It is peanuts for people who can afford a smartphone.

I wouldn't call $3 per gigabyte "peanuts" to someone buying the ~$30 extreme low-end Android phones, or indeed a much poorer person that possesses a battered second-hand feature phone with a Facebook app, which could at least theoretically be covered with this sort of program.

As I said before, we already have plans that give access to basic websites for $0.5 a month. Facebook-only access is like $0.1 a month. But with these plans, I can still access the rest of the web if I choose to, I just have to pay. $0.5 is what a poor person pays for lunch on job site, just to put the price in perspective.

I'm not arguing the free part, I'm arguing the fact that as soon as you opt-in for the new Zero plan, the regular web just cannot be had, even for price. The only web that will work on the phone is apps by Zero Rent providers. No websites, even if you wish to pay for them.

And this is bad for poor people to boot. What if they want e-governance features, no sir, wait in line and be treated poorly. What if they want to access healthcare information, no sir, wait in private hospitals and be treated poorly. But wait, get this, you can shop on Flipkart for no cost. Yay!

Re: Ask HN: What do you guys think of zero rating?

#50

Post by icebraining »

blumkvist wrote: post #42
nathan_f77 wrote: post #9

If I was developing an app in India, I would love to pay for my users data. This is a huge win for both companies and customers. My opinion is that this should have nothing to do with the "net neutrality" debate. It's just shifting more costs onto the host, instead of the user. The host already pays for all the servers and outgoing bandwidth, why is it a problem if they also pay for the other side of the connection?…

Wow such a beautiful world you live in. Unicorns, honest people, fairness and shit... Please, wake up.

I'm genuinely curious; did you intend this post to have any real effect? That nathan_f77 will read it and suddenly realize the errors in his/her ways?
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