“Free” internet for users, not really

Paid features, such as videos, appear in free service mode, and footage should either remain hidden or alert users to data transfer costs. When users touch the content, they are confronted with carrier accounts. Bills are difficult to pay, especially for the target group of users in developing countries.

Meta estimates that operators have charged users about $7.8 million a month since last summer. Pakistan had a problem, it is estimated that more than $1.9 million was paid to customers. A spokesman for Meta said he had received reports of the problem and had “continued to work” on debugging the software. In essence, the new versions of the ‘free’ regime are only on paper and will hardly be charged.

A spokesman said the document, which estimates costs of $7.8 million a month, was not based on information about operator billing, and that excessive costs were closer to $3 million a month. New customers are driving the company’s growth

Meta, like Google, has a strong interest in encouraging free internet access. Most of the company’s recent growth comes from developing countries where many people are accessing the network for the first time. While the free service doesn’t limit users from just visiting Facebook and other services it owns, it increases the chances of new users signing up and boosting the company’s growth.

There are other concerns about the company’s free offers besides the sudden charge. The company has been criticized for easily paying for data through in-app systems and subsequent “loans” in some countries.

It is also accused of pushing users of its Discover product towards content on its own services, while not doing enough to make external content easily accessible.

Although the company claimed that it would treat all internet traffic equally for its own products or for other things, the leaked document itself states that Discover “does not work in accordance with our obligations”.

All of this sounds interesting, but it also looks like a fusion of metaverse and NFT. Most people don’t even think about how much the internet costs them. Packages that are ‘free for a limited time’ are often available. It is true that all this costs much more than it should, although maybe something will really change in the future.

The question is whether big companies really need some advertising or convenience to support their work ... This is just one of the competitions who will be the “leader” in the market.