What is the difference between MNO zero-rating and Facebook Free Basics?

What is the same?

• Users can access your IoGT site for free on their web browser-enabled mobile phone through a participating MNO

What's the difference?

For the user

• MNO Zero-Rating
  • Access through the normal URL, eg www.internetofgoodthings.org, or any other URL direct to content
  • Ability to view video, listen to longer audio files, and download documents eg PDF
• Facebook Free Basics
  • Access through the Free Basics portal, which lists all available Free Basics services in a country
  • Access to specific content through specific URLs that are hard to type, eg 0.freebasics.com/s/1TKvCfzp6xP1fxr/
  • No ability to view video, listen to longer audio files, or download documents

For the Administrator

• MNO Zero-Rating
  • The administrator's organization must make an agreement with an MNO to set up zero-rating
    • This agreement may be free for the organization (eg a NGO partnership), or the organization may choose to pay for the users' usage themselves
    • The MNO may have requirements for the IoGT platform, like not hosting video or other heavy files
    • This agreement may include promotion by the MNO, but that must be negotiated
  • MNOs typically require that the IoGT server must be accessible through a single static IP address, which is possible through IoGT but must be set up specifically
• Facebook Free Basics
  • The organization must register the domain (eg goodinternet.org) with Free Basics, but subdomains (eg pk.goodinternet.org) don't need to be individually registered
  • Cannot add video, and cannot add large images/audio files (>200kb)
  • There may be small changes to how IoGT content is displayed when a user accesses it through Free Basics, so it's good to get a SIM card from a participating MNO and test
  • IoGT will be promoted on the Free Basics portal

Key takeaways

• MNO Zero-Rating
  • Pros
    • Gives more flexibility to the administrator
    • Easier for the user
  • Cons
    • It can be a long and time-consuming process to set up this relationship with the MNO
    • Your MNO may provide promotion as part of your partnership, but this needs to be negotiated.
• Facebook Free Basics
  • Pros
    • Easy to set up if your organization has already registered your domain
    • Free Basics provides some promotion for your platform on their portal.
  • Cons
    • Complicated to link users to particular content
    • No video or long audio