Net Neutrality in Context of Nepal (SaveTheInternet)

In most recent time there is tending two tends in Nepali Cyber Space, one is free facebook and Twitter provided by Ncell and another one is Net Neutrality. So today I will discuss about facts and truth about these contrast two trends.

In social media and micro blogging platform many people appreciate Ncell's new move to give free facebook and twitter and few peoples is against of this move.
 So what is truth? 
Why people are against such move by Ncell to provide free facebook data? 
What is net neutrality?
How this move by Ncell can be Harmful?
  these questions are most common  questions around Nepali web.

Connection Between Net Neutrality & Ncell Free Facebook

Perhaps you heard news, Facebook and twitter is now free on Ncell. Many peoples supported this move by ncell. Actually Ncell lost their prestige since tax scandal and now seems they  gained back their prestige with this move.  Twitter and Wikipedia was free on ncell since more than 2 Years. Now another social media giant added in the list of free surfing website in Ncell.

Free Facebook Data Promo

Since yesterday midnight Ncell announced free facebook. Now you can browse free facebook from facebook official app, you can see status but not photos with this free facebook data offer. Messanger and lite is not included in free browsing list.

If you are facebook/twitter user then this is really great news for you. Your monthly data cost is reduced by many percentage. Isn't it an exiting news?  Oh, yeah, this is an exiting news. But do you want to know truth? It is going to destroy internet based startups from Nepal. It is just a cute cobra, it may seems nice but it will harm us for sure.

Now why peoples are against this move by Ncell?

Some peoples are against to this move by Ncell. They claimed this is just a evil business plan of Ncell and warned us to protest this else we will have an adverse effect on how we surf and use our Internet in near Future. Because Ncell's plan is against net neutrality.

What is Net Neutrality?

According to Wikipedia

 Principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially.

or simply internet service providers such as Ncell, Nepal Telecom, Subishu should not control our internet activity. It should not block or discriminate against any application or website that are accessible through it's Network.

What can be effects of this move by Ncell?

As protesters warned, we will have an adverse effect on how we surf and use our Internet in near Future.
Such anti- net Neutrality moves can affect startups which relay on internet very badly. Lets take example of Sagoon- A social network created by Govinda Giri (Nepali) which is going to be affected by this move. If a user is giving his 50/50 time to sagoon and Facebook then he have greater probability to leave sagoon and use facebook instead because facebook is free and he should pay data charge to browse sagoon. In the same ways if a developer is planing to build a social networking site with more features than facebook then he can be distracted by this move because he can't compete with facebook at startups level in terms of money. This will reduce creativity of entrepreneur.

The protesters demonstrated another example,

 "As of now Facebook is free to Ncell users, similarly let's say Amazon starts their business venture here in Nepal. So it does a deal with Ncell (huge money involved here) and makes surfing Amazon free on Ncell Network. So all the people who were previously buying stuffs from locally crafted online shops like Sastodeal or NepBay will start buying things from Amazon because it's free surfing Amazon on Ncell Network." Moreover Ncell can even block all other online stores which will force all Ncell Internet users to shop from Amazon.

Facebook packs are also against Net Neutrality?

Yes, facebook and all other related data packs which can be used just to browse some specific site or app are against net neutrality. But normal data pack is not considered as anti- Net Neutrality activity because there is no discrimination, you can browse any site with same rate.

What are the steps taken in such Cases in International level?

Net Neutrality in India

Before nearly two year ago our neighbour country India faced nearly same situation. Reliance- one of the biggest internet service provider and Internet.org announced free data for facebook and 38 other websites through an app. Because of huge voice against such moves Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) banned differential pricing of data services On 8th Feb 2016.
Not only in india, many country such as United States, Netherlands, Singapore have supported net neutrality. Its a time of Nepal.

We were silent when Ncell announced facebook data pack. Again we had not spoken single word when Ncell announced free data for Wikipedia and twitter. Just before few days Nepal telecom too introduced facebook data pack. Remained Silent. Now what? Facebook. So its a time to act to prevent our future of internet based startups. If we remained silent at this critical stage, even god cannot help us from drought of startups in Nepal.


There is almost zero space of Startups in Nepali Budget and Contributed almost zero percentage in total GDP. This shows there is no environment for startups in Nepal. Although in such bad environment internet based startups is growing gradually in Nepal for eg. Esewa, Sastodeal, nepbay, yellow nepal etc.  This shows our startups have potential to contribute to nation in terms of money and fame.

So its time to decide, believe in Nepali startups else be the slave of foreign social networks for forever by killing Nepali startups.


 Sources: Wikipedia, facebook and different websites.

Thanks, Sorry for bad English and please share and Help to Save The Internet.

February 15, 2017 Tags : ncell , net neutrality , news , Save The Internet , SaveTheInternet , telecom

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