At the height of the controversial Fair
Usage Policy (FUP) that caps the so-called “unlimited” Internet subscription in
the country, Globe Telecom's successful free Facebook access promo to all its
subscribers is being extended
until April 25, 2014. But, is it really a good or bad news?
FUP is probably one of the most talked
about issue in the tech industry this year. Though data capping has been in
placed years ago, it was only this year that it became a trending topic in
various social networking sites pushing the National Telecommunications
Commission (NTC) to review the local telcos' “unlimited” data marketing and
their versions of FUP. NTC then required all telcos to explain in details their
data packages but did not touch FUP.
Theoretically, FUP is pro-consumers. It
would weed out all the users who abuse the unlimited Internet that they have initially
registered to so majority of the subscribers can enjoy a fast and reliable
connection. It should only affect the abusers in the network. In reality, FUP
affects all users as it slows down your connection to absolutely nothing when
you reached the certain data limit assigned by the network.
The free Facebook promotion of Globe is
also pro-consumers. It allows all their subscribers to access Facebook for free
as long as they have an Internet-capable device and connected to their network
regardless if they are registered to a data plan or not. However, this is also
one of the reasons why the already clogged network of Globe – the very reason
why FUP was strictly implemented – is unable to provide quality data connection
to its paying subscribers.
While the free Facebook promotion benefits
both the growing number of Globe subscribers and the network itself as it tease
other subscribers to switch networks, its existing paying users suffer a lot
from network congestion. So, extending this free Facebook promotion isn't
really a good news, right?
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