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FACEBOOK AND OTHER giants have launched an initiative designed to give the whole world access to the Internet.
The project is entitled Internet.org and its goal is to cut the cost of smart phone-based Internet services in developing countries.
“Everything Facebook has done has been about giving all people around the world the power to connect,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said.
“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.”
Today some 2.7 billion people, just over a third of the world’s population, have access to the Internet and the number of new users is growing only slowly each year, a statement yesterday said.
The other partners in the project are Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Opera, while Twitter and LinkedIn also also due to sign up.
“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,” the statement said.
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.
“Partners will support development of sustainable new business models and services that make it easier for people to access the internet. This includes testing new models that align incentives for mobile operators, device manufacturers, developers and other businesses to provide more affordable access than has previously been possible,” it added.
The partnership emulates one launched by Facebook in 2011 called Open Compute Project and which aims to improve the materials used in call centers and make them less energy-hungry.
That project was originally met with scepticism but has gradually won over the major players in the computer industry.
The new thrust comes at a key time for tech groups. Mature markets are saturated and have little potential for significant growth, while poor regions like Africa, Latin America and some parts of Asia are pools of potential new customers.
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Pretty sure most of the world just want some food and aren’t starving to death because of lack of a wifi signal.
True, but in fairness to them, they are not foods companies, they are tech companies. They are simply trying to do what food companies and governments should have done a long time ago.
They just want to datamine more people
Was looking at new update for Facebook app the want to record phone calls and take pictures from ur device
Thats the Facebook Messenger app. It is going down the Voip route. Sure Viber and the like records stuff on you already. Nothing new or alarming here that what is already known.
It’s a bit like McDonalds saying they want an outlet on every street corner.
Expand their customer base? Make business sense.
It’s amazing how some parts of the world has no Internet, but then when you look at Ireland even for a first world country we have areas with no TV or net.
Not to argumentative but satellite broadband and tv reach all parts of Ireland at this stage. Grand it, it is expensive and the broadband not up to speed but it’s a start
A very cynical lot on here today. Internet would improve their lives. Not all the people in the developing world are starving. They live a basic life and affordable internet would give them an opportunity to improve their lives.
Lots of people talking about food & clean water & that the internet is not that important. Imformation is power. If we give the whole word free internet access maybe they can feed themselves better with it or at least tell the rest of us whats going on. These ideas are great. They give everyone on the planet the chance to be involved with the rest of the world. True equal rights globally.
Information is power, and Mark hasn’t got enough if it yet
Not to mention lots of wonderful sales & marketing opportunities to be had…..and all under the guise of helping people. Sweet. : I
How noble of Facebook et Al to offer Internet cheaply to these areas. I’m sure it has nothing to do with improving their bottom line by selling the information of uneducated and and vulnerable people to other companies and their own ruthless government. No, this is done purely out of the goodness of their hearts. Another time magazine man of the year award in the offing for mark, while Bradley manning gets 35 years in jail for exposing crimes of USA.
Of course it is being done for great PR and to build more customer relationships but who cares if it does good? The ‘bottom line’ is it will improve people’s access to the internet. Microsoft recently gave some PC tablets to a group of children in a small, rural village in Ethiopia, the results were astonishing. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/
Access to information is they greatest gift that you can give someone. If a private company makes a profit out of it, does it matter? The advancement of media has exposed the psychopathic tendencies of corporations business dealings, this has resulted in private companies needing to engage in a lot more philanthropic exercises to boost their PR and repair their images, surely this is a step in the right direction?
Also, why does every story have to resort back to US War crimes!?! The US are the new bankers!!!!
There’s nothing philanthropic about Mark Zuckerberg. Everything that he does is to make a profit. Of course that’s what companies should be doing, making profits. But masquerading as some kind of benevolent force for good makes me sick. The Internet isn’t really what people without electricity need. Of course the Internet has great benefits. Facebook is not one of them.
My point about US war crimes is that Mark Zuckerberg gets man of the year for operating a profitable company that sells the data of its users while Bradley manning Julian assange and Edward snowden get vilified for exposing criminal acts by govts worldwide.
Of course it is to make profit, no doubt, but it will have benefits. There are more and more companies seeking to improve their PR and advertise through ‘charitable’ methods. Surely, companies pouring money into these works rather than multi-million television campaigns is better on the whole for people. It is a massive change around for companies to be doing this, it is far from perfect and their motives are profit, but I am just making the point that it is a step in the right direction for private companies. Why does this make you sick? It makes me ‘sick’ that these countries governments are so inept at accommodating the needs of their people. In a perfect world, private companies should not have to be engaging in such activities, as governments would address these issues, but at least the strings attached to private companies is just generally good PR and as not near as horrible as the ‘aid’ packages given by governments in the past.
Your Snowden point is valid, it just seems to be a US comment in every article on the journal these days, I didn’t merely aim that at you, and the comparison is very valid here.
Tesco online shopping will then be available worldwide so food problem will be solved.
Priorities? These software companies that are highly inflated bullshit machines that collect data in order to monetize it. As much as the idea of a food tablet that would solve world hunger, which was one of the solutions back in the 70′s. Giving people computer tablets is not going to help in any way. The last thing you need when your hungry is a advertisement tool which is what the Internet has become.
Education should always be a priority. Charities attempt to teach farming to people so they can feed themselves but their man power and scope is very limited. Yes, giving food is important too, but what happens when it runs out? Also, do you just leave them become dependent on hand outs? If you can teach people to fend for themselves, then they can rise out of poverty. The above link demonstrates the power that a PC tablet can have on poverty stricken areas.
Mobile technology is turning us all into Zombies, next time your on a train or at the Bus Stop count how many people who are glued to their devices. It is quite sad and we are just becoming slaves to these corporations, they know where we are, what we like, who we communicate with, what our future plans are.
I work in IT myself and find technology getting even more scarier with newer technology on the rise. Connecting the world to the internet is fair enough but there will always be a method behind the madness. Maybe solve famine and war before giving a malnourished poor Somalian a smart phone.
With all the billions of euro/dollars that these companies make could easily help fix this sick world. I know they are technology companies with innovative ideas but surely someone else can say wait a minute lets fix this issue before we move forward.
I’m not really sure what Facebook are offering this collective, all of the other companies provide infrastructure and can reduce the cost of hardware, but Facebook? They can only stump up cash but will piggyback the rest to increase subscribers so will get the most out of it.
For those cynical of the tech companies intentions, they all have ethical programs in place, such as Ericsson “rescue”which provided a instant phone network in Indonesia, Haiti and others during their disasters to assist the rescue operations – it’s not always chasing the dollar.
Ya I will have to argee with cormac food and clean water would be more helpful then checking garda checkpoints cork
Great idea, let’s start with the midlands and work towards Internet for the west. An ambitious plan but with the right minds it could be possible.
2/3 of people in the world just want clean water.
This article should be entitled nsa wish to expand their spying network
The don’t want to ‘give, the world the internet access, they want to expand their market for increased income from advertising.
There’s a subtle but distinct difference there.
I can see twitter in a couple of years,
LOL today my country is failing to protect my human rights but OMG gangnam style, anyway better get back to the sweat shop to fund my 10 sibling’s twitter addictions
But in all seriousness, I don’t think “smart phone” based technology can really tackle problems where communities can scarcely afford a communal phone for emergency use. And I’m not saying that there won’t be positive side effects as a direct result of this project but it seems disingenuous to all parties involved to pretend that the primary goal is anything other than broaden your market and increase revenue. Go ahead and make your logical business decisions just don’t act like angels, okay?
Some of this research should prove useful to developed markets too so I am glad it is happening at least.
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