Hi Taz, Data is a commodity, in that a commodity is something...

Hi Taz,

Data is a commodity, in that a commodity is something that gets consumed. Data is a lot like electricity that is produced by hydroelectric power stations. Once the infrastructure to supply the data or electricity has been built, there is still a cost to maintain the infrastructure going forward. And as consumers use more data or more electricity, the infrastructure's capacity has to expand to meet the increasing demand. The maintenance and expansion costs need to be paid for by someone.

For Facebook to supply entire continents with free internet, they would need income to pay for the infrastructure and maintenance of this infrastructure or they would need to pay an existing Mobile Network Operator to use their infrastructure. This income for Facebook would have to come from advertisers... So for a consumer to have "free" internet, it becomes a case of advertisers paying for consumers' data, which is entirely the SYT Sponsored Data model.

Unless Facebook plan to generate enough revenue in developed countries to then provide free internet to undeveloped countries at no cost... Is that what you are thinking may happen?

Cheers Dal