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VC Pitches in a Year or Two

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Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#11
post #6

Facebook already does this in india. I remember seeing an advertisement of a telco that said you wont be charged for data for facebook. Does this means that India already had this non neutral internet? It didn't change the scenario much here.

I remember here in the UK, Three (a UK mobile network operator) allowed for free access to Facebook. This was before the days of the iPhone though and it took you to a stripped down mobile site.

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#12
The author is missing the point that the ruling was about the specific language of the FCC regulations. See: http://gigaom.com/2014/01/14/breaking-court-strikes-down-fcc...

"That said, even though the Commission has general authority to regulate in this arena, it may not impose requirements that contravene express statutory mandates. Given that the Commission has chosen to classify broadband providers in a manner that exempts them from treatment as common carriers, the Communications Act expressly prohibits the Commission from nonetheless regulating them as such. Because the Commission has failed to establish that the anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules do not impose per se common carrier obligations, we vacate those portions of the Open Internet Order."

It seems very likely that the FCC will rewrite their regulations to fix this. Everyone knows that net neutrality is important, and this ruling is just an issue in legalese. It's a little early to resort to torch-and-pitchfork hyperbole.

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#13
post #6

Facebook already does this in india. I remember seeing an advertisement of a telco that said you wont be charged for data for facebook. Does this means that India already had this non neutral internet? It didn't change the scenario much here.

I remember here in the UK, Three (a UK mobile network operator) allowed for free access to Facebook. This was before the days of the iPhone though and it took you to a stripped down mobile site.

Vodafone offer free access to Spotify or SkySports with some packages, although I am not 100% confident it's free data, or free service.

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#14
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still, if you're located in Europe but want to target the US audience as well (a huge market), you're going to be affected anyway.

Yes, but it's rarely the case. US startups don't target any other places outside the US at first. The friction to start is in the US not in Europe.

I don't think that's true. Most consumer focused startups will target the US market, even if within the EU. It's by far the largest homogenous (well, relatively) market. Targeting "Europe" isn't really a thing - You have to target each country individually.

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#16
Not the point of the article, but is anyone else annoyed by these "entrepreneur-sounding" ideas? I'm so sick of low-tech, solve-first-world-problem ideas and conflating that with entrepreneurship. If I were the VC, I'd tell them to get the fuck out, and it'd have nothing to do with Telcos.

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#17
post #6

Facebook already does this in india. I remember seeing an advertisement of a telco that said you wont be charged for data for facebook. Does this means that India already had this non neutral internet? It didn't change the scenario much here.

I remember here in the UK, Three (a UK mobile network operator) allowed for free access to Facebook. This was before the days of the iPhone though and it took you to a stripped down mobile site.

Three also offered free access to Skype. It used (uses?) a Three-specific Skype client (available for many, but not all, models of phone) to do the presence and signalling over data, and the voice over the normal mobile voice channel:

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/fa10976/how-can-i-get-skype...

To protect revenue, SkypeIn was blocked, and SkypeOut was restricted to non-UK numbers.

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#18
post #10

This is already reality in some countries. Like India for instance. 1st Indian entrepreneur: I plan to launch a search engine that understands Indian languages and contexts better than Google. VC: Well since Google has already paid telcos like Airtel ( http://www.airtel.in/free-zone/ ) so their searches and even some results don't use up any of the data plan, we are passing. 2nd Indian entrepreneur: I have an idea fo…

In Latin America too, and Facebook was part of that.

I don't know why this issue was not discussed earlier. If I remember well, it started with the facebook applications for mobiles more than 3 years ago.

Just a few times less developed countries predict what will happen in US (technologically speaking!)

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#19
Australia has been doing this for years for mobile data plans. Even though data plans aren't as expensive as they use to be, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, eBay, LinkedIn & MySpace are all "free" on the Optus network.

Re: VC Pitches in a Year or Two

#20
I get the point you are trying to make, but it wasn't presented in a way that non-tech folk will appreciate.

My parents' reaction to your scenarios would be something akin to: "Really? For the monthly rate I'm already paying, I now get Netflix and Hulu included for free? NICE!"

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