Digicel Is Blocking Ads In Trinidad & Tobago Because Of Money Greed

[admin]

The fight for the Mobile Ad Dollar has now come home to us here in the Caribbean, with Digicel throwing down the gauntlet, first. Digicel which has 13.6 million subscribers across 31 markets, mostly in the Caribbean, says it will use an ad blocking technology from a company called Shine, to block display and video ads in both mobile browsers and apps. They are starting with Jamaica first.

The BusinessInsider.com reported todat that “Perhaps controversially, ad blocking for Digicel customers will roll out as standard. It won’t be an optional add-on, although the company says it may offer customers the ability to switch off the facility. The only sites that won’t see their ads blocked will be “certain local news sites,” a Digicel spokeswoman told Business Insider.

In a press release sent to SiliconCaribe today Digicel peddles the argument that this controversial move is ” Improve Customer Experience and help drive broadband access.” The real reason it seems is made clear as they stated in their release. They are “calling for ad networks like Google, Yahoo and Facebook to enter into revenue sharing agreements to bridge the digital divide.” So the real issue- It’s about money!


Lots of Questions Arise From this move.
1. Will Digicel give the customers the CHOICE to view or not the Mobile Ads? If customers buy their data, aren’t they free to use that data as they please, which includes blocking ads or not as they go about their mobile viewing experience? So why is Digicel seemingly overstepping its boundaries and making that decision on behalf of their customers?

2. In Trinidad and Tobago we have the OUR, Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago – which regulates the Mobile/Telecom Sector. Recently, Digicel’s blocking VOIP apps on their customers a while back, but that has been kept hush hush – what will OUR say about this issue?

3. What does the Government has to say about this?

4. Why only a few local news sites been spared from the Adblocking decision?

5. How does this hurt our help Mobile App development and Entrepreneurship in the Caribbean ?

6. What implications there are to Net Neutrality issue?

7. How does Ad Blocking Technology Work and doesn’t this flout the data privacy issues of Caribbean Mobile consumers? Further, Where is the Caribbean when it comes to covering the rights of consumers in this and other data privacy issues?

 

[admin]

Alot of people will welcome this but what about the webmasters, who offer free services on their websites. We run over 9 websites and we offer alot of free services because we generate money from the ads now digicel has blocked all ads what will we do?.

Whats worst is that digicel is favoring particular website Like Their websites, news websites and allow ads to be shown on them.

We barely any money from the ads on our websites and how this move make sit even worst. All digicel cares about is money and the greed of it.
Even you favorite youtuber will be affect by this Monet greed from Digicel, You will not see the ads on youtube with affects how youtubers get paid.

 

[unknown]

Digicel is the worst yes, They want to tell you how to use your data that you bought!
They were boasting how they had 4g which they did not and still don't have, is that not false advertising?, is that not a crime? Only in this banana republic mega companies can get away with these things.

Whats worst is that they spam you phone everyday with that crap sms game and promo bull that no ones wants.
Digicel needs to get their act together yes.

 

[SPECIES]

Digicel is the worst yes, They want to tell you how to use your data that you bought!
They were boasting how they had 4g which they did not and still don't have, is that not false advertising?, is that not a crime? Only in this banana republic mega companies can get away with these things.

Whats worst is that they spam you phone everyday with that crap sms game and promo bull that no ones wants.
Digicel needs to get their act together yes.

Yes, I agree that Digicel has faults, but don't be ready to totally bash them as yet.
Don't forget the days when TSTT/Bmobile were digging out our eyes and charging us ridiculous rates for calls and texts.
The days when you paid $2 to $3 per minute for calls and $1.50 for a text, and that was after they charged you over $1500 for a cheap crappy cepep phone.
If wasn't for them, TSTT/Bmobile would have kept us like cavemen.

Both networks claimed they provided "4G", so Bmobile is not innocent of this.
They were both providing a version of data that was close to 4G called LTE aka "4G LTE".
Many providers around the world were also providing this "4G LTE" and it was allowed.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/4g-vs-lte/

From our standpoint, we know what Digicel's real intentions are with the Ad Blocking, but they looked at it as a win win situation.
No End Users like Ads in anything. That is why we call it "Annoying Ads".
Digicel found a way to get the attention of End Users and Control Ads and Marketing.
It has adverse effects on many aspects on the internet, especially since everything on the internet is Ad Based.
We'll just have to wait and see how this holds out, but at the same time I still will not "mash them up" as yet.

I got rid of TSTT/Bmobile as soon as Digicel came to the mobile market and never looked back.
While my partners still suffer from "no reception" and "slow data speeds" (regardless of what they advertise), my Digicel bars are always full and my Data always flowing.
Digicel was also the one to bring down the Mobile Data Cost with their new prepaid packages and roll over data.
When Mobile Data now started to get popular, men bawling with 1GB, stretching the life out of it.
Me and many of my partners using Digicel, have over 40GB of (reliable) data on our phone that we just cant use out.

I also got rid of FLOW and their never ending crappy Customer Service and Unreliable Broadband Internet.
Digicel came around and was the first to bring Fiber to our homes.
Only because Digicel maintained very good customer service, is the only reason why FLOW stepping it up a bit - otherwise FLOW would have kept shafting us just as TSTT was.
Digicel also made Cable more affordable with their packages.
We all thought Massy was a good option, but that was a short lived dream.

I am just being objective here.
Yes, they are not perfect and they are making some decisions in their own interests but I still will not right them off as yet.
If our Local Service Providers were giving us Somewhat of a Fair Deal from the beginning, Digicel would not even be here.