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Re:India's richest man offers free 4G to one billion people by personjerry on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @09:39AM (#12443252)
So this seems like it entirely defeats Facebook's efforts in India with Internet.org... which brings up the question of why Facebook didn't just do this?
Re:India's richest man offers free 4G to one billion people by bbctol on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @09:49AM (#12443321)
This is the same company that Facebook was going to use with Internet.org. It looks like after Facebook's attempt was blocked, he realized he didn't have to be a middleman, and could just offer cheap service on his infrastructure anyway. Still, this comes across as even more damage to Facebook's attempt to be seen as altruistic, even if I expect the profit-seeking is just slightly less obvious in this case.

EDIT: Oh no, the plot thickens! Facebook was working through Reliance Communications, a subsidiary of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Reliance Jio is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited. These are two halves of a split business empire; Mukesh Ambani didn't take Facebook's idea, he took the idea Facebook had for his brother!

Re:India's richest man offers free 4G to one billion people by jitix on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @10:07AM (#12443473)
Mukesh Ambani had been planning this for a long time now. They got the license couple of years back and then started building out the infrastructure. However Facebook's freebasics and the failed venture with his brother's company might have had some effect on the pricing that Jio is offering now.
Re:India's richest man offers free 4G to one billion people by frommstoms on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @10:06AM (#12443461)
Because Facebook doesn't want India to use Internet. Facebook wants India to use Facebook.
Re:India's richest man offers free 4G to one billion people by devnonymous on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @09:54AM (#12443367)
I was writing up my comment when you asked this, check it -- tl;dr : This is the same telco which was partnering with Facebook before the regulatory authority shot Free Basics down.
Re:India's richest man offers free 4G to one billion people by fooker on Wednesday September 07, 2016 @11:43AM (#12444304)
No, this is not the same telco.