http://www.fmtech.co.za/?p=10148
The SA chapter of the Internet Society has slammed Vodacom’s move to pre-format Web pages for their subscribers’ cellphones, saying it has broken a number of websites and other online services.
On Thursday, Vodacom said it had launched a new service that would ensure an accurate representation of the Web pages on a cellphone, through technology that adapts the computer-screen format of any website into a smaller, cellphone-friendly format. But the move has angered some Vodacom subscribers, who say the new technology breaks their mobile browsing experience.
“This is a technological revolution every bit as significant as the introduction of cellphones was in 1994, when millions of South Africans without a fixed-line telephone were pushed headlong into the communications age,” says Vodacom SA MD Shameel Joosub (pictured). “Now they are going to be introduced to the Internet age.”
Vodacom says it wants to “broaden the penetration of such cellphones amongst the rest of South Africans by promoting the power of the Internet on their cellphones”.
But all the company seems to have achieved so far is to alienate its more tech-savvy customers. Now the Internet Society has weighed in, accusing Vodacom of breaking the Internet for millions of its customers.
“Various applications that include instant messaging, banking, specialised mobile applications such as e-mail, YouTube, Twitter, Fring and at least a dozen others, are no longer working,” the society says in a statement issued on Friday. “In technical terms, Vodacom installed a proxy service that was not sufficiently tested. As one blogger correctly pointed out, ‘Vodacom is essentially using the public as subjects for an alpha test of their technology’.
“The technology that Vodacom is using is not standards compliant and, considering Vodacom’s position as a dominant Internet service provider, it should behave in a more responsible fashion. Furthermore, some of our members have claimed that Vodacom block many applications that it feels may threaten its business,” the society says. “While we have no direct evidence of this, we appeal to Vodacom to disclose what it blocks and intercepts on its networks.”
The Internet Society is a global not-for-profit membership organisation founded in 1991 to provide leadership in the management of Internet-related standards, educational, and policy development issues. The SA chapter is specifically concerned with finding ways to bridge the growing digital divide.
In its statement, the society says it is possible for Vodacom subscribers to work around the problem by removing the proxy server address from the Internet settings on their handsets. For example, Nokia users should access Tools, Settings, Connection, Access Points, Vodacom, Options, Advanced Settings and remove the proxy server address. — Duncan McLeod
