Facebook plans to provide free internet to Africans
Facebook, through Internet.org has been planning for a while to provide the access to free internet to people around the world. The company has now moved a step forward. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook has announced in a Facebook post about launching a satellite over Africa that will transmit signals giving access to internet to a very large African populace.
Facebook started an office in Johannesburg, South Africa in June this year will be using it as a medium to disseminate the information about the internet transmitting satellite to the people of Africa. The company has entered into a partnership with Eutelsat Communications of France for constructing the satellite that has been christened as AMOS-6.
Facebook announced on 5th October 2015 the plans to launch the satellite in 2016. Currently half of the population of the world does not have any access to the internet. Majority of the African population has no access to the internet services. The satellite will provide this large African population an easy and free access to the internet. Currently Facebook has around 20 million subscribers in Kenya and Nigeria, but the number is way below than the actual population of the continent.
Most of these users access the internet using their cell phones. The satellite will provide an easy sync to those with such mobile phones. It will mean that more and more population can benefit from the free internet services. Since the launch of Internet.org, Facebook has been stating its intentions to give a simple and easy access to internet from even the remotest parts of the world.
The internet service of Facebook will enable the people in Africa to gain an access to job portals, educational websites and other informative websites pertaining to agriculture and other trades.
