[governance] A lot of people here will likely disagree - but wait there's more: Facebook/Eutelsat/Internet.org in Subsaharan Africa

[Lee W McKnight]

http://news.eutelsat.com/pressreleases/eutelsat-and-facebook-to-partner-on-satellite-initiative-to-get-more-africans-online-1228638


My comments:


Satellite-delivered packets are most definitely unequal and relatively pricey due to engineering realities and launch costs. Bandwidth/cost optimization requires actively engineering for periodically refreshed (terrestrial) content caches/delivery networks.


Still satellites are cheaper for Internet access than other packet delivery options in areas severely lacking terrestrial infrastructure, whether wired or (terrestrial) wireless.


But I guess since Facebook is paying for it and is among the naturally favored offerings, some of us would suggest this a is a very bad thing for sub-Saharan Africa?

And of course it is just fine for Eutelsat to sell business-class Internet access off the same satellite, with no intent of making it available to evveryone.

Lee




________________________________
From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org <governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org> on behalf of Suresh Ramasubramanian <suresh at hserus.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2015 11:42 AM
To: Mueller, Milton L
Cc: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
Subject: Re: [governance] A lot of people here will likely disagree

Well, if people try to extend the declaration of independence and hold that all packets are created equal, without regard to engineering realities .. I guess they'll do this too :)

-srs

On 06-Oct-2015, at 9:04 PM, Mueller, Milton L <milton.mueller at pubpolicy.gatech.edu<mailto:milton.mueller at pubpolicy.gatech.edu>> wrote:

It seems that zero-rating could be used by market entrants to gain a foothold in the market and increase competition in certain instances.

Regarding Facebook and Internet.org<http://internet.org/>, let me see if I understand the argument: No access at all is preferable to limited access, and we shouldn't allow anyone to make that choice for themselves. Is that it? ;-)

pula
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