[kamikazi]

"You must be on the Reliance network to use Internet.org. If you'd like to access these websites for free, use a SIM card from Reliance" --

What I see when I visit internet.org from my wired & wireless, non-Reliance telco.

Think of this as FB passing off 'free AOL CDs in the mail' as The Internet in India for millions of first timers who are getting sub-$100 smartphones, using poor villagers--& benevolent Wikipedia to provide covering fire.

[icebraining]

Think of this as FB passing off 'free AOL CDs in the mail'

Yeah, and what a stronghold AOL has now over the US market, eh?

[kamikazi]

Yeah, so let's repeat that - this time in a vastly different market, way crazier demographic variety, far different socio-economic & growth conditions and tech/internet revolution which has exponentially changed for good since then.

What can go wrong? At the most we are risking only a generation of Indians thinking FB as internet (just like Indonesians) who will then graduate to think Chrome icon as the browser (just like people thought of IE shortcuts on their Win95 desktops).

Let's allow the same mistakes but this time execute it better. I can get behind that.