Internet bundling
and it's effects to Internet penetration in developing countries
East
Africa being a community of developing countries, has been blessed
with the appearance of three
submarine cables*
at the East African coast. Coming from satellite Internet which is
known to have a minimum round
trip time of 500ms to optic fibre Internet which reduces the
round trip time to even less than 10ms, every thing in Internet
speeds and Internet bandwidth has increased at the coast and in the
inlands of the East African community. More Internet can be accessed
on the move (mobile Internet), more people are becoming abreast with
the Internet and the different terminologies, more Internet service
providers, more content is being developed and more innovations are
coming up in the world of Internet. If all that is not enough, many
countries have developed Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) which help
in reducing the time to access local content and also develop the
capacity of local content creation. The case here in Uganda is the
Uganda Internet Exchange Point
(UIXP). When Uganda only had satellite ISPs (Internet Service
Providers), Internet was expensive, slow, and limited the access to
some websites like torrent sites. Although with the increasing number
of ISPs, most of these limitations have been done with, but a new
innovation has been noticed. Those days, Internet was sold in the
whole, meaning you paid for a service and it did not matter how you
used the service. These days, even after paying for the service,
there is a limit to how much of the data you can download and upload
in a particular period of time. This phenomenal is referred to as
data capping or data bundling in Internet terminologies.
How has
Internet Bundling affected Internet usage?
With
the advent of social networks and the entire web
2.0, a lot of content is available, more people are living life
on the Internet and more people are joining the Internet. As more
demand for the Internet grows, the supply seems to be constrained
which leaves people demanding for more. Those who cannot afford the
bundles are left to access Internet in corporate offices, Internet
cafes and friends computers where possible. This leaves this type of
population with out service. Some people still believe that once they
have paid some money to the ISPs, they should be let to use the
Internet freely with out boundaries. They further assert that, it is
because of these boundaries that innovations and some initiatives are
limited as some content will require more bundles than other content,
which brings in the topic of net neutrality. There are questions
like, who uses the unused bundles at the end of the month? Why should
ISPs buy unlimited Internet and resell limited Internet? This school
of thought therefore confirms that if Internet bundling is stopped,
East Africa will even realise deeper Internet penetration.
From
the other side of the corridor, is a group of people who believe that
it is because of these bundles and these limitations that we can even
enjoy the speeds we are talking about. Although there is more
capacity available at the coast due to the optical fibres, the ISPs
are let trunk space which is a resource. This resource will be
unusable by a good part of society if not well managed. If we allow
a group of people to clog and monopolise it with some
'capacity-eating' content, other people will not be able to use it
yet they have paid for the service. This introduces a topic of fair
user policy. It is upon this argument that ISPs limit on how much
someone can download and upload even after paying for a monthly
subscription. People in finance also believe if it was not for data
capping, Internet wouldn't be a good business to invest in. Because
of this bundling business, ISPs can be able to sell more and more
bundles and accumulate some profits. Some one has once told me that
if it was not for data bundling, it would be hard for people with low
income to even afford that small Internet. When Internet is bundled,
every one is allowed to buy a portion depending on what he wants and
what he can afford. Since we are a majority of low income earners,
the only way we can access Internet is by buying small affordable
bundles.
Each
side of the corridor has more points to put across as regards this
topic but these are the fundamental basics. It is upon these basics
that I would wish to engage you (my reader). Do you think bundling of
Internet has hampered the speed and depth of Internet penetration in
developing nations? Would the situation be better without bundling?
Your Opinion is
much appreciated.
*Seacom,
TEAMs and EASSy
