Facebook Plans to Expand Internet.Org to 100 Countries by Year End
Facebook’s non-profit initiative to connect the world, Internet.org, is successfully running in six countries. The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is quite happy with providing limited free internet to remote areas and is planning to expand the service to 100 more countries by the end of this year.
Chris Daniels, VP of Internet.org at Facebook said in a statement –
The ambitious goal this year is to roll it out to 100 [countries]. We don’t want to focus so much on the number, but we want this to spread to additional countries, operator groups and… see more people coming online, buying data and voice and SMS bundles. The number is indicative of our ambitious goal.
Internet.org is a Facebook-led free internet program that works with data suppliers to provide free internet to people who can’t get online. It allows users to access basic sites like Wikipedia, job and health sites, and Facebook, of course. The service was launched back in 2013 and now it connects 7 million people of six nations across the globe – Zambia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Colombia and India.
Zuckerberg thought ahead and his idea really worked. Countries provided with free internet have seen a sudden jump of 40% in the internet data demand. People are willing to get associated with the world around seeing the power of internet via little demo, that is Internet.org.
Facebook’s step will draw more nations closer to each other and is a way to transform the developing nations into developed ones. Meanwhile, Facebook has teamed up with Google for Project Loon in establishing high-altitude balloons, a satellite-based network, to connect to connect people in rural and remote areas.
