Facebook's data service for developing countries, which was supposed to be 'free', turns out to be charging users unexpectedly
In order to acquire new users, Meta has partnered with carriers in developing countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines to 'plan to browse several websites including Facebook limited edition without data charges'. It is provided at. However, there is a big hole in this plan, and the Wall Street Journal reports that users are being billed unexpectedly.
Facebook Promised Poor Countries Free Internet. People Got Charged Anyway. --WSJ
Since Facebook's growth in developed countries is no longer expected, Meta is aiming to acquire new users mainly in developing countries, developing robots for building new Wi-Fi services and laying optical fibers. And laying submarine cables. As part of this, Meta will make available low-bandwidth versions of Facebook and websites that can be used even with limited communication capacity, and will also focus on services that provide inexpensive smartphones that support Wi-Fi and do not require telephone charges. I'm putting it in. The free data charge plan provided by Meta for developing countries costs only a few hundred yen a month, including telephone charges, so it can also be used with prepaid smartphones.
However, the Wall Street Journal reports that subscribers to this free plan are being charged high fees by local carriers, based on an internal document that was written in October 2021. .. According to internal documents, the total amount of charges charged by carriers to users of the free plan in July 2021 was 1.3 million dollars (about 150 million yen) in the same month of the previous year. It is said that it has increased to 7.8 million dollars (about 900 million yen).
Zafar Ikubal, a 35-year-old high school teacher living in the Kashmir region of Pakistan, is one of Meta's free plan users. For Mr. Ikubal, who has a monthly income of about 175 dollars (about 20,000 yen), communication costs are a matter of life and death, but the prepaid portion is quickly exhausted, and 500 Pakistan rupees (about 320 yen) to 600 as a surcharge for data use every month. He said he is paying Pakistan Rupee (about 380 yen). Telenor Pakistan, a Pakistani carrier contracted by Mr. Ikubal, seems to incur a total data charge of $ 14,736,96 cents (about 1.68 million yen) every day for users of Meta's free plan.
According to an internal document obtained by The Wall Street Journal, 'Because users of the free plan watched many videos while believing that'all data charges are paid by the carrier', they actually paid the data charges. It is in a situation where you will be paid. ' The Wall Street Journal reports that one employee noted in an internal document that 'this situation violates Facebook's transparency policy.'
According to a Meta spokesperson, when a user of the free plan signs up, it is designed to notify that 'viewing videos is not applicable to the free plan and data charges will be incurred.' However, a spokeswoman said that the fact that this notification feature didn't always work might have contributed to the swelling of data charges on the free plan, 'Facebook is working to fix this issue. I am. '
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