Vodafone, Airtel and Telenor express resentment towards Facebook and Rcom’s Internet.org project

In the recently concluded Mobile world congress held in Barcelona Spain, Vodafone, Airtel and Telenor made it clear that they were not happy with Facebook’s project internet.org for offering free internet in countries where internet penetration is not much. In India, Facebook has partnered with Rcom to offer free internet through the internet.org app. The app at launch offers free access to 38 sites and services with limited functionality in 7 Indian languages.

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If a subscriber wishes to perform more advanced functions he is required to upgrade to a paid package, for example, while using Facebook for free you can update statuses or comment on posts but to open photos or videos you would need to subscribe to paid packs. Reliance sees this as a way to lure the price sensitive market who have not opened up to using mobile internet as yet, also it acts as a way to promote its paid packages amongst users who want an advanced user experience.

Companies like Vodafone see this as damaging to their revenues, since these companies have invested billions of dollars in procuring spectrum and setting up towers and if Facebook for its personal gains of increasing its subscriber base partners with telcos the larger companies stand to lose out on subscribers who will opt for the free internet offering by Rcom. Vittorio Colao, who is the Vodafone chief, said at the event, “That is not fair. It is almost like Zuckerberg does philanthropy, but with my money. Why do we have Facebook for free, and why not Google for free or TV for free, or education for free, or health for free? Who has said that Facebook is more important than learning English, for example? We have to be careful.”