Thursday, December 1, 2016
Facebook founder others unveil plan to widen global Internet access
Facebook founder others unveil plan to widen global Internet access
FOUNDER of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has unveiled a
campaign with global technology giants to connect billions
of people worldwide who lack access to the Internet.
A report by Agence France Presse (AFP) called the project
Internet.org. Its goal is to extend Internet access to five
billion people by cutting the cost of smartphone-based
Internet services in developing countries.
“There is no guarantee that most people will ever have
access to the Internet. It isn’t going to happen by itself,”
Zuckerberg, the 29-year-old billionaire founder of the
popular social network said in a statement.
“But I believe connectivity is a human right, and that if we
work together, we can make it a reality.”
Other partners in the project are Finland-based Nokia,
Sweden’s Ericsson, Samsung of South Korea, U.S.-based
Qualcomm, MediaTek of Taiwan and Norway’s Opera. U.S.-
based social networks Twitter and LinkedIn are also due to
sign up.
The organisers said some 2.7 billion people – just over a
third of the world’s population – have access to the Internet
today, and the number of new users is growing only slowly
each year.
“The goal of Internet.org is to make Internet access
available to the two-thirds of the world who are not yet
connected, and to bring the same opportunities to everyone
that the connected third of the world has today,” they said
in a statement.
The seven founding partners are going to develop joint
projects, share knowledge and mobilise governments and
industry to bring the world online.
Specifically, they want to simplify mobile apps to make
them more efficient and improve telephone components
and networks so they perform better while consuming less
energy.
They also want to develop lower-cost, higher-quality
smartphones and partnerships to more broadly deploy
Internet access in underserved communities.
Zuckerberg insisted in an interview with Cable News
Network (CNN) that the project was not simply aimed at
generating more customers.
“If we were just focused on making money, the first billion
people we’ve connected have way more money than the rest
of the next six billion combined. It’s not fair but it’s the way
that it is,” he said.
The partnership resembles one launched by Facebook in
2011 called Open Compute Project, which aims to improve
the materials used in call centers and make them less
energy-hungry.
That project was originally met with skepticism but has
gradually won over the major players in the computer
industry.
The latest plan marks an expansion in Zuckerberg’s interest
in public policy, months after he launched the advocacy
group Fwd.us to lobby for U.S. immigration and education
reform along with support for scientific research.
The new thrust comes at a key time for tech groups. Mature
markets are saturated, while poor regions have vast and
growing reservoirs of potential new customers.
“The Internet not only connects us to our friends, families
and communities, but it is also the foundation of the global
knowledge economy,” Zuckerberg said.
“By bringing everyone online, we’ll not only improve
billions of lives, but we’ll also improve our own as we
benefit from the ideas and productivity they contribute to
the world.”
His comments were echoed by heads of other companies
taking part in the initiative.
“We are committed to shaping the Networked Society —
where everyone and everything will be connected in real
time; creating the freedom, empowerment and opportunity
to transform society,” Hans Vestberg, president and chief
executive of Ericsson, said
MK Tsai, chairman of MediaTek, said: “Global Internet and
social media access represent the biggest shift since the
industrial revolution, and we want to make it all inclusive.”
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