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Wikipedia used to be free on mobile in Nepal. When a service doesnt get counted against a mobile subscribers data plan, thats called a zero rating. In places where the dominant online encyclopedia is free, its calledWikipedia Zero. Private cellular provider Ncell cancelled the service at the end of March, according to Indian news siteThe Wire. The crowd-sourced encyclopedia remains free in parts of the developing world as different as Tajikistan and Angola,according to the Wikimedia Foundations website. In fact, that page shows that Afghanistan is the latest place where the program went live, doing so just last week for people subscribed to theRoshan mobile carrier.

As weve previously reported, Wikipedia isnt just a place to get information. It also gives people a chance to contribute to one of the most robust repositories of knowledge on Earth, making it a transformational resource for the worlds poorest people. That said, while Wikipedia is good, the whole internet is better. Some open web advocates worry that free mobile access to one of the most widely used services online inhibits demands for infrastructure sufficient to provide access to the entire web.

The cost of mobile data can be a barrier to accessing the free, volunteer-contributed information on Wikipedia. In Iraq, for example, a recent survey revealed that the high cost of data limited internet use for a majority of participants, Juliet Barbara, a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, wrote the Observer in an email. Wikipedia Zero exists to address the affordability barrier in countries where our readers and editors cant afford the mobile data charges to access Wikipedia.

The foundation administers Wikipedia, but it doesnt provide editorial control. Its zero rating program operates under a series of principles, one of which is this: no one gets paid. Wikimedia doesnt pay the provider and the provider doesnt pay Wikimedia. It also makes partners commit to not editing or changing pages on the site.

Yes. On a global scale, the digital divide is bad.

Last year, the World Economic Forum reported that four billion people lack internet access; however, the mobile internet is minting far more new internet users these days than desktops connected to broadband, as the Pew Research Center has reported.

One commonality between the developing world and ours: data costs money on mobile. The more subscribers use, the more it costs, but if Wikipedia doesnt count against a data plan, then people wont hesitate to go to the encyclopedia and learn about the world (or to contribute to it, so that the rest of the world can learn about ignored places).

Its debatable.

If one site is free to visit and another isnt, users will more likely become habituated to using the free site. Twitter and Facebook startedpaying for free access to users around the world about three years ago. Then Google followed suit. Obviously this costs the companies money in the short term, but it locks in audience over time.

Although it may seem like a humane strategy to offer users from developing countries crumbs from the Internets table in the form of free access to walled-garden services, such service may thrive at the cost of stifling the development of low-cost, neutral Internet access in those countries for decades to come, Jeremy Malcolm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in 2014. EFF doesnt always oppose zero ratings. It has a detailed breakdown of the complex issues raised by zero rating certain resources.

In 2014, tech companies and advocates in the U.S. hada big fight over internet speed. Big companies wanted to pay for priority access to internet users. For example, Google might have paid some internet providers so that its music service loaded faster for itssubscribers, so people on that network might decide to switch to Google Music from Spotify. The fight was referred to as net neutrality. As usual, John Olivers explainer was best.

Making the data for a service free on mobile has a very similar effect to making it faster on the web. Both create an unfairly superior user experience. When Wikimedia Foundation embraces a free data model for its most famous product, that makes itharder to explain whats pernicious about free access to tech giants websites. The new head of the FCC, Ajit Pai, has made it clear that he sees free data programs as a net benefit to consumers.

Yes. In a 2014 blog post, Deputy Director Erik Mueller wrote, The Wikimedia Foundation believes that the principle of net neutrality is critical to the future of the open internet.

Its hard for any organization that supports a walled-garden approach to internet access to also defend everyones right to chose where they go and what they do online, Timothy Karr of the advocacy group Free Press wrote the Observer in an email. Wikimedia, he argued,could use its considerable influence to defend open internet protections while supporting universal access to all of the world wide web, and not just to a part of it.

Also in 2014, another Wikimedia staff member, Gayle Karen Young, admitted to theWashington Post that we have a complicated relationship toit.We believe in net neutrality in America. She went on to predict that as data charges dropped around the world, Wikipedia Zero wouldnt be necessary any longer. Honestly, we dont think well have to do it for very long, she said.

The longest running Wikipedia Zero programs still running are in Montenegro and Thailand, which both launched Wikipedia Zero in 2012. In total, the Wikimedia Foundation shows 49 countries with active zero rating programs for the encyclopedia.

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Wikipedia Is Not Free in Nepal Because of a Cellphone Company - Observer