Facebook to boost service mobile internet service

Facebook Inc plans to boost its service to offer free basic internet on mobile phones, according to an executive. The move comes after the application was introduced in 17 developing countries over the past year.

In a blog post released to mark the first year of the initiative, Facebook said it would open a portal to allow any mobile operator to offer the service under its Internet.org platform. The social network currently partners with specific operators to launch the service in different countries.

The initiative has brought over 9 million people online in past year, Chris Daniels, vice president of product for Internet.org, told Reuters. The platform was developed by Facebook with six technology partners to bring an estimated 4.5 billion unconnected people online, mainly in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

The platform offers pared-down web services for free to users, along with access to the social network's own social network and messaging services.

According to the Facebook blog post, over the past year, the service had bought new users onto mobile networks on average over 50 per cent faster and that more than half the people using Internet.org were paying for data to access the wider Internet within 30 days.

The last 12 months had seen Internet.org, backed by Facebook, Nokia, Samsung and a handful of other prominent technology companies, go online in 17 countries, making it available to over a billion people. The social network did not say how many people had actually joined the Internet.org platform.

At the core of Internet.org was the partnership Facebook could ink with wireless carriers. With the signing of a deal, the carriers offer basic internet access to Internet.org users free of charge. Internet.org users are equipped with basic devices connecting to carrier networks and get them online for the first time.

Once Internet.org users logged on to their service via a mobile app or through the service's website, they are presented with approved applications, including Wikipedia, Facebook Messenger, UNICEF's Facts of Life health site and local news sites and can also browse the internet.

All application partners adhered to strict guidelines established by Facebook that required apps minimal use of bandwidth so users were not hobbled by the slow data speeds offered by carriers.