Facebook Express WiFi: Testing with ISPs has begun, say reports

Facebook Internet.org website’s page on Express WiFi says the project is already live in rural India. In our report from October 2015, we had pointed out how Facebook’s Express WiFi project wants to bring internet to remote parts of the world and allows affordable internet at a community level. Facebook helps plug the technology gap and its local Internet service provider partners provide the data packet.

“We use commercially available Wi-Fi access point technology with software developed by us to help the local entrepreneur manage his customers and for the customers to electronically buy Internet usage for as low as Rs 10,” Munish Seth, Country Manager-Connectivity Solutions India region had told IndianExpress.com last year.

He pointed out the company is the using the old cable operator model to get Express Wi-Fi working. The team helps the local entrepreneurs with technology, business solutions and marketing. At the time, the model had been in use in over 100 villages across India.

When it comes to Internet connectivity, Facebook has quite few projects on the line. For instance, last month Facebook’s solar plane Aquila completed its first test flight. Facebook’s plan is to beam down Internet via lasers from these solar-powered drone. In October last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also announced plans to launch a satellite in partnership with France’s Eutelsat Communications to bring Internet access to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Also read: Satellites, drones,WiFi: How Facebook wants to cover the world with Internet

Zuckerberg had announced the company’s new satellite called AMOS-6 will launch in 2016 into a geostationary orbit that will cover large parts of West, East and Southern Africa. Facebook will work with local partners across these regions to help communities in the area get Internet access via satellite.

Of course, one of more ambitious projects of Internet.org was the Free Basics app, which was a zero-rating app that gave access to select websites for free on the Reliance Communications network.

Facebook’s campaign to push for Free Basics backfired in India, and eventually TRAI, India’s telecom regulator, ruled against content being offered on discriminatory pricing. For Net Neutrality advocates, Free Basics was a clear violator, while Facebook pitched it as an issue about internet access for the poor. Eventually Free Basics was withdrawn from India.

For Facebook, boosting internet connectivity in India is a key objective as it seeks to expand and acquire the next one billion users. After all, its numbers are already at 1.7 billion per month.