Facebook wants more mobile phone carriers and developers to get on board with their effort to provide free basic Internet service in developing countries.
First launched in Zambia, Internet.org is currently available in 17 counties with the help of more than a dozen mobile operators.
The initiative started last year and Facebook executives said it s making it easier for companies to partner with them on their efforts in year two.
Studies show that for every 10 people who gain access to the internet, around one person is lifted out of poverty. If we can connect the 4 billion people without internet access, we can help raise hundreds of millions out of poverty, wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an online post Monday.
The company created an online portal that includes tools and best practices so mobile carriers can partner with them on the initiative and opened up the Internet.org platform to third-party developers, allowing them to build services into the mobile app.
But the initiative has also faced criticism, including from India, since it launched a year ago.
Some say that the efforts threaten net neutrality — a principle to keep the Internet open and free — because the company limits the free Web service to certain websites such as Facebook and Wikipedia.
But Facebook, which denies that the efforts runs afoul of net neutrality, says that Internet.org has been working and has reached more than 1 billion people.
People who use the free basic Internet service end up using mobile data 50 percent faster than before and it helps them access health services, the company said Monday.
Photo Credit: Screenshot of Internet.org website.
