Less experienced, low-income users prefer an open, unlimited internet, a recent study reports

A recent Master thesis at the Oxford University contributes to a heated debate about the pros and cons of the zero-rated content (the offers of the providers in which certain type of content, such as Facebook for instance, is offered for free) with some initial qualitative findings. The interviews on how users are responding to Facebook/WhatsApp data packs in India, conducted by Amba Kak, suggest that less experienced, low-income users prefer an open, unlimited internet, while “the cheap Facebook/WhatsApp bundle was only attractive to those who had alternate means of accessing the ‘full’ internet”. Besides, it reports that the innovations in data pricing, such as the short duration (several days) unlimited access plans, had been more successful in responding to the needs of financially constrained users.