Keeping up with its promise to make internet free for those who cannot afford it in India, social networking giant Facebook has chosen Reliance Communications Network to offer Free Basics – its free internet sharing
platform – now to everyone in the country.
“We just took another step towards
connecting India. As of today, everyone in India nationwide can access
free internet services for health, education, jobs and communication
through internet.org’s Free Basics app on the Reliance network,” wrote
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook, in a post.
In his post, Zuckerberg also said how
Free Basics app has helped Ganesh Nimbalkar, a farmer in Maharashtra,
not only double his crop yield but also get a better deal for them.
“Ganesh struggled with traditional
farming methods in a region plagued by droughts, but last year he
started using Free Basics — accessing services like AccuWeather, which
helped him work better through the monsoon season, and Reuters Market
Light, which helped him understand commodity prices and get a better
deal for his crops,” Zuckerberg wrote.
“By using Free Basics, Ganesh has
doubled his crop yield, eradicated insect infestations and even invested
in new crops and livestock,” he further posted.
In February, the app was available in
India for Reliance customers in six states — Tamil Nadu, Mahararashtra,
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, and Telangana.
However, with the recent announcement, Reliance customers all across the country will now have access to Free Basics.
Facebook rebranded internet.org app —
which it developed in conjunction with Reliance Communications — as
“Free Basics by Facebook” in September this year.
“Today, nearly one billion people are
currently without internet access in India. Now with Internet.org’s Free
Basics available to everyone in India, many more people like Ganesh and
his wife Bharati will have access to the information and opportunity
the internet brings,” the Facebook founder posted.
During his India visit in October, Zuckerberg has reinstated that the world cannot be connected without India.
“It is very important to connect people
in India (one of the largest democracies) as it is central to our plans
of connecting the next billion people and then the whole world,”
Zuckerberg had said at the townhall meeting held at the Indian Institute
of Technology (IIT) Delhi.
“India is one of those countries which you cannot overlook if you want to connect the world,” he added.
Asked about net neutrality and
Internet.org, Zuckerberg said the platform via its Free Basics platform
aims to solve three problems of connecting to the internet —
availability, affordability and awareness.
He said that “Free Basics programme
under the Internet.org initiative aims to connect the next billion
people. It does not intend to harm anyone — neither the consumers nor
the operators”.
He reiterated India’s importance as a
market for Facebook and said that nearly 250 million of the targeted
next billion will come from India.
“India is home to the third largest
internet user population (300 million) in the world, yet paradoxically,
it also hosts the largest unconnected population (one billion) to the
internet,” Zuckerberg said.
He highlighted that nearly 15 million people have access to internet as a result of Facebook’s efforts in 24 nations.
“Free Basics by Facebook” provides
people with access to websites of useful services like news, employment,
health, education and local information on their mobile phones for free
in markets where internet access may be less affordable.
