Mobile Giant Three Group To Block Online Advertising (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Global mobile provider Three has announced that it will shortly begin to block online advertising on all of its six European networks, beginning with the UK and Italy. The company, which also has networks in Hong Kong and Indonesia, will announce its partnership with Israeli network ad-blocking startup Shine at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, according to sources. Shine's first network ad-block customer was Caribbean provider Digicel last year, but the new Three Group deal seems set to cause massive disruption to web-based publishers — who, it seems, may have to pay for bandwidth and show more respect for user privacy in their ads if they want to continue to operate in the mobile space.

Comments

It Works Both Ways

[KermodeBear]

I wonder how many sites will decide to simply block users that are on Three's address space.

Then the issue becomes, "Who will want to use Three's service when all the sites I like to use aren't available?"

This could be very interesting.

Net neutrality bait and switch?

[monkeyxpress]

Okay so this sounds great, but if everyone cheers them on for doing it, what is to stop them turning around in 6 months time and saying you have to pay extra to access youtube on your phone?