Facebook testing Rs10 Express WiFi at 125 locations

Facebook Express WiFi, which provides internet in 125 rural locations in India, is being tested for a commercial rollout, reports today said. Facebook has confirmed in a statement it plans to look at a possible larger commercial rollout of the project.

According to a BBC report, Facebook said the tests were being carried out with ''multiple local ISP partners''. Express WiFi is part of Facebook's over Internet.org project, which wants to bring internet connectivity to parts of the world that are still offline. With Express WiFi users can buy data packets starting as low as Rs10, and is being implemented across villages.

Facebook Internet.org website's page on Express WiFi says the project is already live in rural India. Facebook helps plug the technology gap and its local Internet service provider partners provide the data packet.

When it comes to internet connectivity, Facebook has quite few projects on the line. For instance, last month Facebook's solar plane Aquila completed its first test flight. Facebook's plan is to beam down Internet via lasers from these solar-powered drones. In October last year, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg also announced plans to launch a satellite in partnership with France's Eutelsat Communications to bring internet access to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Zuckerberg had announced the company's new satellite called AMOS-6 will launch in 2016 into a geostationary orbit that will cover large parts of West, East and Southern Africa. Facebook will work with local partners across these regions to help communities in the area get Internet access via satellite.

Of course, one of more ambitious projects of Internet.org was the Free Basics app, which was a zero-rating app that gave access to select websites for free on the Reliance Communications network.

Facebook's campaign to push for Free Basics backfired in India, and eventually the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ruled against content being offered at discriminatory pricing. For net meutrality advocates, Free Basics was a clear violator, while Facebook pitched it as an issue about internet access for the poor. Eventually Free Basics was withdrawn from India.

For Facebook, boosting internet connectivity in India is a key objective as it seeks to expand and acquire the next one billion users. After all, its numbers are already at 1.7 billion per month.