A year ago, Facebook teamed up with six other tech and internet giants to launch an ambitious project that aims to bring affordable internet to two thirds of the world’s population in developing countries.
Internet.org is the vehicle Facebook, Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera and Qualcomm have chosen to deliver internet to nearly 5 billion people. Mark Zuckerberg seems very keen on the project and has been spear heading the initiative.
“There are huge barriers in developing countries to connecting and joining the knowledge economy. Internet.org brings together a global partnership that will work to overcome these challenges, including making internet access available to those who cannot currently afford it,” said Zuckerberg.
Facebook has taken the project’s intentions a notch further by developing the internet.org’s app.
“With this app, people can browse a set of useful health, employment and local information services without data charges. By providing free basic services via the app, we hope to bring more people online and help them discover valuable service they might not have otherwise,” Guy Rosen, Product Management Director at Facebook explains.
The app will only be available to Airtel subscribers in Zambia before internet.org rolls it to other parts of the world. Subscribers will have access to Wikipedia, Messenger, Go Zambia Jobs, Google search, Facebook among other web services.
