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Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

nytimes.com

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Re: Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

#51

Post by nickpinkston »

nivla wrote: post #32

Sad to see a lot of people being cynical about this just because Facebook is taking the lead. Facebook may have personal interest in it but if the global good is greater, we must learn to be appreciative. Most discoveries and inventions, heck even the space race dint start out of the goodness of heart; but aren't we glad they did? I am all up for anything that brings people new source of information. Atleast its bett…

Sure, but things like FWD.us being more than a little affirmative* of peoples' doubts and the whole PRISM thing aren't helping them either.

*The political horse-trading supporting fracking, Elon Musk pulling out, etc.

Re: Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

#52

Post by sravfeyn »

How do you create a society where organizations would have a vested interest in leading efforts to lower barriers to electricity. Even in present conditions, electricity is after-all a prerequisite to better internet access. I wonder why there are fewer juggernauts looking into electricity than internet.

Re: Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

#53

Post by s3r3nity »

mcphilip wrote: post #42
nivla wrote: post #32

Sad to see a lot of people being cynical about this just because Facebook is taking the lead. Facebook may have personal interest in it but if the global good is greater, we must learn to be appreciative. Most discoveries and inventions, heck even the space race dint start out of the goodness of heart; but aren't we glad they did? I am all up for anything that brings people new source of information. Atleast its bett…

Why should we assume that Facebook is trying to be a good steward of the Internet with this project and not simply motivated purely by profits? There are plenty of examples of Google pursuing projects that don't readily contribute to their bottom line, but I'm skeptical that a company led by a man who called his users "dumb fucks" is truly benevolent.

1) These people who will be accessing the internet from these channels are going to bring in ~$0 revenue. You think advertisers are want to target these low-income areas?! This is a specious argument at best -- attempting to create this lame binary "Google = good, Facebook = bad"

2) He said the 'dumb fucks' statement when he was 19 -- I'd hate for shit I said when I was that age to be held against me for the rest of my life =/

3) Given that their mission is "Making the world more open and connected," this project is just in line with that.

Re: Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

#54

Post by annnnd »

danenania wrote: post #46

Quite a high percentage of the people in the world without internet access live under governments with poor human rights records. In this new age of massive unscrupulous spying and data mining by governments, bringing the internet to new populations without making sure they understand the risks makes them vulnerable to unprecedented levels of tyranny. Any initiative that tries to expand internet access without addres…

One could argue that even those in the USA do not understand or cannot avoid these risks, making them (as you said) "vulnerable to unprecedented levels of tyranny".

Re: Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

#55

Post by s3r3nity »

zmmmmm wrote: post #23

Google seems to be conspicuously absent. It's terrible to be cynical, but can't help feeling like this is just a reaction to project loon. Basically a banding together of companies who might see Loon as a threat, to offer some kind of alternative that they are in control of instead of Google. However unlike Loon, reading the entire page I can't see anything solid they will actually do - develop better compression alg…

This is of a large enough magnitude that I'm suspicious it could be something created out of the Project Loon announcement in terms of timing.

Also, given that Facebook's mission is to "Make the world more open and connected," this is just the next logical step to me. Not everyone has extra billions hanging around that Google does, and therefore FB + partners need another method to pull it off.

Re: Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

#56

Post by josh2600 »

quink wrote: post #19
debt wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like it's more about making the internet more accessible to people without it.

> However, the Internet.org team does not plan to tackle some thorny infrastructure issues that are huge barriers in the developing world, particularly the long-distance transmission of data to far-flung places. The only way this initiative will therefore accomplish access to the Internet to people without it seems to be in increasing the profit margin to the local telco. How? Through vertical integration. What does…

To be frank, that has a lot to do with the shifting Australian regulatory conditions, specifically deregulation. Your fixed line services, at the national level, are still relatively small. What you're referring to is what we call Last mile connectivity and competing exchanges.

In reality, there aren't very many transcontinental cables being laid right now because the ROI is greater than 30 years in most cases.

Basically my point is this: your fixed line services are growing at a fast rate because they're just now being opened to competition, but, over time, like the rest of the developed world, wireless networks will subsume your fixed line services.

Just my opinion and my two cents from talking to Aussie Telcos.

Source: I'm a telecom geek.

Re: Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

#57

Post by vasundhar »

I think this time, Facebook need not sell, it just need to propose the govt.,rest all will be a breeze as the Big boys want more data,more and more to churn, bubble and victimise each citizen possible every day.

Hail Facebook,Hail NSA and Other organised shit giving us false promise of security while churning our own data.

Re: Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

#58

Post by quink »

josh2600 wrote: post #56
quink wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, the Internet.org team does not plan to tackle some thorny infrastructure issues that are huge barriers in the developing world, particularly the long-distance transmission of data to far-flung places. The only way this initiative will therefore accomplish access to the Internet to people without it seems to be in increasing the profit margin to the local telco. How? Through vertical integration. What does…

To be frank, that has a lot to do with the shifting Australian regulatory conditions, specifically deregulation. Your fixed line services, at the national level, are still relatively small. What you're referring to is what we call Last mile connectivity and competing exchanges. In reality, there aren't very many transcontinental cables being laid right now because the ROI is greater than 30 years in most cases. Basic…

> like the rest of the developed world, wireless networks will subsume your fixed line services.

http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/8153.0~December...

You sure about that? Plus, how are you going to transmit 1 Gbps with an acceptable level of contention, with a very very thin wall or two in the way over any distance greater than let's say a hundred metres?

Plus, this deregulation that you speak of, the national telco was being privatised starting in 1997, and deregulation happened before that even. Broadband ISPs have been around forever, and their DSLAMs for more than a decade too.

> Your fixed line services, at the national level, are still relatively small.

In some areas, we've got three networks running to the same premises. Fixed line services are near enough fully built out and have been forever.

Re: Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

#59

Post by peggyp »

samstave wrote: post #50
quink wrote: post #7

tl;dr: Zuckerberg says "Screw net neutrality, I've got dibs on billions of people for my walled garden." > Twitter ... has struck its own deals ... in more than 100 countries to offer some free Twitter access; ... it bundled free Facebook access with some of its Asha feature phones.; Globe Telecom, has used free Twitter, Facebook or Google access > "if you can afford a phone, I think it would be really good for you t…

I posted the following 2 years ago here on HN: --------- The Book: It started innocently enough. Everyone is on it. Everyone. In the more than 20 years since it was founded - and now - daily life just could not be managed without it. Sure, it started innocently enough. Connect with your friends, post your pics, keep up with the fam. Yeah, that was then. It wasn't too long before they started adding features. Adding v…

Interesting read !!

Re: Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access

#60

Post by pdshrader »

Frankly, it sounds like he's just recharacterizing basic efficiency plans to make it seem like Facebook is on some sort of altruistic mission. There's little to no action called for, no commitments towards altrustic ends. It's just a "hey, we should get more people online" (which only helps Facebook's bottom line) and a "we're trying to make Facebook load faster" (again, bottom line).
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