LIRNEasia is carrying out research on the use of promotional and free data use in Myanmar and India. The results from our work in Myanmar have now been released.
This piece of research was carried out with financial support from Mozilla, the Google Policy Fellowship program, the UK Government’s Department for International Development, and the International Development Research Centre, Canada.
We found that differently designed zero-rated promotions elicited different behavioural responses from users. Noteworthy was that many respondents were unaware of content offered by MPT’s Free Basics other than Facebook. Frustrations on the absence of photos and videos, and the process of switching back and forth between the free and paid versions of the platform were expressed.On the other hand, Telenor’s Free Facebook and Viber, where the distinction between the zero rated and open Internet was less clear, was more positively received.
Many respondents owned multiple SIMs and were highly responsive to promotional packages offered by different operators. The packages were used in a variety of ways to manage data-costs.
The full report can be accessed here.
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