Bangladesh has banned zero rating of mobile internet usage, making the Facebook-sponsored Free Basics service illegal.
The decision shows how convoluted communications policy sometimes can be. In order to “protect competition,” the decision means users cannot use a selected offering of internet apps without buying a data plan.
That would obviously lead to higher internet usage for those apps, and many believe it stimulates demand for mobile data plans in general.
India has been the key instance of such bans in the recent past, citing network neutrality principles often said to be based on “treating every bit the same” or not allowing any apps or services to feature higher-quality mechanisms such as packet shaping or allowing usage of some apps without the usage counting against a data cap.
Whatever the stated reasons, banning zero rating or Free Basics obviously takes away a consumer value for low-income citizens, whatever the other claimed benefits.
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