Free Internet? Here is Google's Zero Rating

Emerging markets are receiving lot of attention on software and hardware. Companies are trying to increase internet penetration in underdeveloped areas. One of the roadblocks faced by the companies, is the data cost. It is relatively higher in the underdeveloped areas or countries. With budget smartphones entering these markets the data costs are not going down making the paralysing the entire effort. Thanks to the companies like Google with Project Loon, Facebook with Internet.Org and other projects like Outernet, the challenge of data cost can be taken care off.

With Google’s Zero Rating approach, it is planning to reduce or eliminate data cost for specific apps like Facebook and Whatsapp. Google has asked developers in the emerging markets about the possibilities in Zero Rating. It is still not clear whether or not has approached the local carriers for the same.

Googles’s Zero Rating is expected to see the same sunlight with Android One already Launched in these markets. The entire Concept might not go down well with those who advocate for Net Neutrality.

Three principles of Net Neutrality:

Rule 1: All sites must be equally accessible: ISPs and telecom operators shouldn’t block certain sites or apps just because they don’t pay them. No gateways should be created, in order to give preferential discovery to one site over another.

Rule 2: All sites must be accessible at the same speed (at an ISP/telco level): This means no speeding up of certain sites because of business deals. More importantly, it means no slowing down (throttling) of some sites.

Rule 3: The cost of access must be the same for all sites (per Kb/Mb or as per data plan) This means no “Zero Rating”. In countries like India, Net Neutrality is more about cost of access than speed of access: all lanes are slow.

Source - medianama.com