{"id":9057,"date":"2016-01-31T09:50:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T14:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=9057"},"modified":"2016-01-31T10:43:36","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T15:43:36","slug":"removing-choice-for-low-income","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=9057","title":{"rendered":"Removing choice for low income"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/20fRkr1\" target=\"_blank\">Times of India reports<\/a> that the <a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/20A9K2c\" target=\"_blank\">Telecom Regulatory Authority of India<\/a>, TRAI, is expected to issue an order this week that will prohibit differential pricing for data services, a move that will impact Facebook&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/20A9SPb\" target=\"_blank\">Internet.Org Free Basics<\/a> service and <a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/20A9RuD\" target=\"_blank\">Airtel&#8217;s Zero<\/a> service.<\/p>\n<p>I have written extensively on these issues over the years:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/gMYoXQ\" target=\"_blank\">Restricting trade<\/a> \u2022 February 10, 2011<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/1xhTIJ1\" target=\"_blank\">Zero is better than nothing<\/a> \u2022 January 13, 2015<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/1OtEiux\" target=\"_blank\">Connecting the unconnected<\/a> \u2022 April 20, 2015<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/1DP1gGf\" target=\"_blank\">Intellectual purity of technology over people<\/a> \u2022 May 4, 2015<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/1NuBrol\" target=\"_blank\">Zero is still better than nothing<\/a> \u2022 August 19, 2015<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/1S7oReN\" target=\"_blank\">Zero-rating is \u201cpro-competition\u201d and \u201cpro-innovation\u201d<\/a> \u2022 November 19, 2015<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/1T0Z48f\" target=\"_blank\">No such thing as a free lunch<\/a> \u2022 November 24, 2015<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are other postings as well.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/gMYoXQ\" target=\"_blank\">I wrote in 2011<\/a>, &#8220;It is difficult to understand how consumers can benefit from restrictions in the types of offers available to them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I continue to have difficulties with the idea that consumers are somehow better off with fewer choices in the marketplace. Banning zero rating provides no benefits to anyone. Prices go up for some users and go down for no one. Consumers have less choice, not more.<\/p>\n<p>More than 8 years ago, in a piece called &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/Snt9SZ\" target=\"_blank\">Leading a horse to water<\/a>&#8220;, I asked &#8220;Are there some applications that might lend themselves to a toll-free model in order to reach the rest of the market?&#8221; <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For example, would home health care warrant installing a broadband connection as part of a monitoring service? The broadband access would be enabling underlying service, but the costs would be incurred by the health care agency, not the infirmed. Like toll-free calling, the application provider would pay the charges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We need creative, market approaches to increase the levels of adoption of digital connectivity among low income households. Limiting choice, such as removing services like Free Basics, looks like a step in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Times of India reports that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI, is expected to issue an order this week that will prohibit differential pricing for data services, a move that will impact Facebook&#8217;s Internet.Org Free Basics service and Airtel&#8217;s Zero service. I have written extensively on these issues over the years: Restricting trade &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=9057\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Removing choice for low income<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Removing choice for low income &#8226; Telecom Trends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Times of India reports that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI, is expected to issue an order this week that will prohibit differential &#8226; January 31, 2016\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=9057\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Removing choice for low income &#8226; Telecom Trends\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Times of India reports that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI, is expected to issue an order this week that will prohibit differential &#8226; January 31, 2016\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=9057\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Telecom Trends\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-31T14:50:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-31T15:43:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mark_logo_png.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3484\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1444\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mark_goldberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mark_goldberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=9057#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=9057\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7a2b80bac06ee3d5cacca8c7708bfe8f\"},\"headline\":\"Removing choice for low income\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-31T14:50:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-31T15:43:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=9057\"},\"wordCount\":295,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=9057#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=9057\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mhgoldberg.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=9057\",\"name\":\"Removing choice for low income &#8226; 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I have written extensively on these issues over the years: Restricting trade&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}