Facebook推免費網絡 讓印度人買賬不容易
MUMBAI, India — If Mark Zuckerberg hopes to deliver on his vision of bringing the Internet to the four billion people who lack it, the Facebook chief will first need to make his plan more appealing to salesmen like Shoaib Khan.
印度孟買——倘若馬克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)想實現給全球40億上不了網的民衆帶去互聯網的願景，那這位Facebook的首席執行官首先要做的，是讓自己的計劃在紹義卜·汗(Shoaib Khan)這樣的攤販眼中顯得更有吸引力。
Mr. Khan’s perfume and cellphone shop in one of this city’s many slums recently displayed a large blue banner advertising Mr. Zuckerberg’s project, called , in the back. Another sign for the free package of Internet services — offered in India through the cellphone carrier Reliance Communications — was posted prominently in front.
汗的香水和手機店開在城中的貧民窟裏，不久前掛了一條藍色的大橫幅，給扎克伯格的項目做廣告。前面顯眼的地方還貼着另一張宣傳免費互聯網服務的標牌，而這一服務由印度手機運營商信實通信(Reliance Communications)提供。
But when a reporter asked Mr. Khan about his experience with , he had no idea what it was. After the program was explained to him, he quickly dismissed it.
不過，當記者詢問汗使用的感受時，他卻並不知道這到底是什麼。聽過關於這一項目的解釋後，他很快就予以了否定。
“The Reliance connection is very patchy,” said Mr. Khan, shaking his head. “I would really have to sell the customer on it.”
“信實的信號時斷時續，”汗搖着頭說。“我得費很大勁向顧客推銷。”
Facebook’s rocky experience since it brought to India in February shows that good intentions and technological savvy are not enough to achieve a noble goal like universal Internet access.
自從Facebook今年2月在印度推出項目以來，事情進行得並不順利。此事表明，美好的願望和運用技術的能力本身並不足以達成全民聯網這樣的高尚目標。
The skepticism of phone sellers like Mr. Khan and the weaknesses of Facebook’s Indian partner are just two of the problems that have bedeviled Mr. Zuckerberg’s project so far.
讓扎克伯克的項目陷入泥潭的原因很多，而汗這樣的手機賣家的懷疑態度，以及Facebook在印度的合作伙伴的不足，不過是其中一二。
’s free services — which include news articles, health and job information, and a text-only version of Facebook — are deliberately stripped down to minimize data usage and the cost to the phone company. Facebook says the primary goal is to show people what the Internet is all about. But many Indians want more and complain that, contrary to its altruistic claims, the project is simply a way to get them onto Facebook and sign up for paid plans from Reliance.
提供的免費網絡服務——包括新聞文章、健康和招聘信息，以及純文字版的Facebook——被精心縮減過，其數據使用量和通信公司的成本都降到了最低。Facebook表示，其主要目標是向人們展示互聯網是什麼。但很多印度人想要的不止這些，並抱怨這個項目並不像它所聲稱的那麼無私，而只是吸引他們上Facebook以及和信實通信籤付費協議的一種方法。
Internet activists have also attacked Facebook for cherry-picking partners to include in its walled garden rather than simply offering a small amount of free access to the whole Internet. Their concerns have struck a chord with the Indian government, which is considering new rules that would govern such free services.
互聯網活動人士也抨擊Facebook是挑選一些合作伙伴進入其“封閉花園”，而非少量提供可以體驗整個互聯網的機會。他們的擔憂引起了印度政府的共鳴，後者正在考慮制定對這類免費服務進行管理的新制度。
Mr. Zuckerberg declined several requests to discuss . But he remains passionate about his crusade. “Internet access needs to be treated as an important enabler of human rights and human potential,” he told the United Nations last month.
扎克伯格多次拒絕就置評。但他對自己這場神聖運動依然充滿激情。“連入互聯網應該被作爲實現人權和人的潛能的重要工具來對待，”上個月他曾如此對聯合國表示。
The suite, rebranded last month as Free Basics, is now in 25 countries, from Indonesia to Panama. Facebook is investing heavily in other parts of the project, including experiments to deliver cheap Wi-Fi to remote villages and to beam Internet service from high-flying drones.
上個月更名爲“免費基礎版”(Free Basics)的套餐服務，目前已經在包括印度尼西亞和巴拿馬在內的25個國家推出。Facebook正在對這個項目的其他部分進行大力投資，包括給邊遠山村提供廉價Wi-Fi，和通過在高空飛行的無人機發送互聯網信號的實驗。
Mr. Zuckerberg is also determined to win over the Indian public. Last month, he hosted a live-streamed chat with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, from Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters. And this week, Mr. Zuckerberg will be in New Delhi, where he will take questions from some of Facebook’s 130 million Indian users.
扎克伯格還下定決心要贏得印度公衆的支持。上個月，他和印度總理納倫德拉·莫迪(Narendra Modi)在Facebook位於硅谷的總部進行了一場現場直播的對談。本週，扎克伯格將在新德里回答Facebook1.3億印度用戶中的一些人提出的問題。
The magnitude of the task ahead was apparent during a reporter’s visit in August to Dharavi, home to as many as a million of Mumbai’s poor.
8月份在居住着多達100萬孟買窮人的達拉維採訪期間，記者發現，前面的路顯然非常艱鉅。
Several billboards advertised Freenet, Reliance’s version of . But in the neighborhood’s narrow alleys, where rivulets of raw sewage competed with sandaled feet, there was little evidence that anyone had taken notice
在那裏，有好幾個廣告板上都登着Freenet的廣告，後者是信實版本的。但是在達拉維那擠滿穿拖鞋的人、污水橫流的狹窄小巷裏，很難講有什麼人注意到了這些廣告。
A conversation with a dozen cellphone users at a tea shop uncovered no one who had heard of Freenet or , but plenty of complaints about Reliance’s sluggish data network and poor customer service compared to the market leaders, Airtel and Vodafone.
在一間茶館裏和十幾名手機用戶聊天后，記者發現沒人聽說過Freenet或，但很多人抱怨，相比通信市場的領軍企業Airtel和沃達豐(Vodafone)，信實的數據網絡非常慢，用戶服務也很差。
At Yahoo Mobilewala, a nearby phone shop named in honor of the American Internet company, the owner Rizwan Khan, offered service from every major carrier. But his stack of Reliance chips — each in a blue Freenet envelope that said “Go free Facebook” — was gathering dust in its display case.
在附近一個以雅虎這家互聯網公司命名的手機店雅虎Mobilewala裏，店主里茲萬·汗(Rizwan Khan)提供來自各大通信商的產品。但他那堆擺在展示櫃裏的信實芯片——每一個都裝在藍色的Freenet 信封裏，上面寫着“享受免費Facebook”——正在積塵。
In India, most cellular service is prepaid. Customers typically buy or refill a special chip, known as a SIM card, often loading it with a dollar’s worth of data or calls at a time. Phone-card vendors are key advisers, educating people about all their options.
在印度，大多數移動通訊服務都是預付費。用戶往往要購買一種名爲SIM卡的特殊芯片，或給它充值，他們往往一次充價值1美元的數據流量或通話時長。手機卡商販是推薦這類卡的關鍵人物，會給人們介紹各種選項。
“New customers don’t come looking for Freenet,” Mr. Khan said, who is no relation to Shoaib Khan. Even if Reliance’s network were good, he said, the package excludes WhatsApp, a popular messaging app owned by Facebook, and users must pay to see the photos in their Facebook feeds. “If you have to pay for data, what’s the point of calling it free?” he said.
“新顧客是不會衝着Freenet卡來的，”汗說，他與前文提到的紹義卜·汗沒有關係。他說，就算信實的網絡真的不錯，它提供的套餐中也沒有Facebook公司旗下的熱門通訊軟件WhatsApp，而且用戶必須付費才能看到自己訂閱的Facebook信息中的照片。“如果用戶必須爲數據付費，幹嘛還要說是免費？”他說。
Phone-card sellers also tend to push whatever makes them the most money. Mr. Khan noted that another carrier had recently awarded him his choice of a Hero motorcycle or 45,000 rupees — nearly $700 — for signing up 1,000 customers. Reliance offered nothing similar.
手機卡賣家也傾向於鼓勵人們購買能讓他們賺更多錢的卡，不管它是哪個公司的。汗指出，因爲簽了1000個用戶，另一家通信商最近給他提供了獎勵，他可以選擇要一輛英雄牌摩托車或4.5萬盧比（約合4450人民幣）。信實沒有類似的獎勵措施。
In more than two dozen interviews in poor neighborhoods of Mumbai, a reporter found several people who had tried but only one who used it regularly — a 23-year-old man who said he used the free version of Facebook Messenger on the app to chat with friends when he ran out of money on his prepaid account.
在孟買的窮人社區進行的20多個採訪中，記者發現有好幾個人曾試用過，但只有一個人會經常使用它，這名23歲的男子表示，當他的預付費賬戶裏的錢用光之後，他會使用免費版本的Facebook Messenger和朋友聊天。
Chris Daniels, the Facebook executive who leads , said the company is primarily trying to reach people who are completely new to the Internet.
負責項目的Facebook副總裁克里斯·丹尼爾斯(Chris Daniels)表示，該公司主要是想觸及對互聯網一無所知的人羣。
In an interview last week, Mr. Daniels said about a million people had been introduced to the Internet in India because of the program. After their first 30 days online, he said, about 40 percent of them became paying data customers, 5 percent stuck with only free services and the rest left.
丹尼爾斯上週接受採訪時表示，在印度，大約100萬人因爲這個項目而接觸到互聯網。他表示，在首次使用了30天后，大約40％的人會成爲付費數據客戶，5%的人繼續使用免費服務，其他人會放棄使用。
“This is a program that is working to bring people online, and working incredibly well.” Mr. Daniels said. “Connectivity is something that improves people’s lives. It’s an enabler for people to be able to help themselves find jobs, help themselves improve their health situation, improve their education for themselves and their children.”
“這是一個努力幫助人們上網的項目，效果非常好。”丹尼爾斯說。“接入互聯網可以改善人們的生活。這能幫助他們找工作，幫助他們改善健康狀況，提高他們自身及其子女的教育水平。
Gurdeep Singh, the chief executive of Reliance’s consumer business, defended the quality of his company’s network, but acknowledged that it needed to do more to raise awareness of Freenet and persuade retailers to promote it.
信實通信公司消費業務首席執行官哥迪普·辛格(Gurdeep Singh)爲該公司網絡質量做了辯解，但他承認需要採取更多舉措提升Freenet的認知度，說服零售商進行推銷。
“This is a slow process,” he said in an interview at the company’s sprawling campus in Navi Mumbai, a few miles from Dharavi. “We are fighting this huge battle against digital illiteracy.”
“這是一個緩慢的過程，”他在該公司位於新孟買的龐大園區接受採訪時說。“我們正在進行一場消除數碼文盲的大戰。”新孟買距離達拉維只有幾英里遠。
According to Reliance research, 36 percent of phone-card sellers don’t have a phone capable of Internet access, which makes them poor ambassadors for the concept.
根據信實通信公司的研究，36%的電話卡銷售商沒有能夠上網的手機，因此，他們無法很好地推廣這一理念。
But Mr. Singh said Reliance was committed to Freenet, which was initially limited to seven states, and planned to offer it nationally soon. “India is at the stage where everyone must get access to the Internet,” he said.
但辛格表示，信實通信公司致力於推廣Freenet，計劃很快在全國範圍內提供服務，該服務起初僅限於七個邦。他說，“印度還處於讓每個人獲得上網途徑的階段。”
While that is a goal shared by many, Facebook’s approach has run into a buzzsaw of criticism from Internet advocates here, who see it as an attempt by the world’s largest social network to become the gatekeeper to the Internet for a new generation of users.
雖然很多公司都以此爲目標，但Facebook的方式遭到印度互聯網擁護者的猛烈批評，他們認爲這是世界最大的社交媒體爲了成爲新一代網絡用戶的互聯網守門人而採取的舉措。
“On the open Internet, everyone is equal,” said Nikhil Pahwa, editor and publisher of MediaNama, an Indian news site, who has vociferously opposed . “On , Facebook is the kingmaker.”
“在開放的互聯網，人人平等，”印度新聞網站MediaNama的總編和出版人尼克希爾·帕瓦(Nikhil Pahwa)說。“在上，Facebook就是擁立國王的幕後主使。”帕瓦強烈反對該網站。
Mr. Pahwa helped organize a campaign called Save the Internet, which rallied a million Indians to press regulators to stop and establish rules protecting net neutrality. That principle, also a subject of intense debate in the United States and Europe, says that Internet access providers should give customers equal access to all content.
帕瓦參與組織了一場名爲“拯救互聯網”的運動，該運動已經召集了100萬名印度人，向監管機構施壓，要求它關閉，制定保護網絡中立性的規定。這一原則意味着互聯網接入提供商應該爲客戶提供訪問所有內容的平等機會。該原則也在美國和歐洲引發了激烈爭論。
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is still mulling potential regulations. In a recent interview, however, the agency’s chairman, Ram Sewak Sharma, was skeptical of . “Maybe they have wonderful objectives, but the way it is being implemented, that’s not really appropriate,” he said.
印度電信管理局(The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India)仍在考慮可能制定的規定。但最近接受採訪時，該局局長拉姆·塞瓦克·夏爾馬(Ram Sewak Sharma)對錶示懷疑。他說，“或許他們的目標很美好，但他們落實目標的方式實在是不恰當。”
Mr. Daniels said Facebook had been listening to all the criticism and had made many changes to , including opening it to other companies that wanted to offer free services on the platform. “We always appreciate feedback, in whatever form it comes,” he said.
丹尼爾斯表示，Facebook一直傾聽所有批評，而且對做出了很多調整，包括向其他希望在該平臺提供免費服務的公司開放。他說，“我們一直很感謝各種反饋，無論是什麼形式的反饋。”
