Mr. Daniels said that “Facebook did not seek to become an internet service provider though and was working on such technologies” to partner ISPs and governments in efforts to enhance high speed connectivity in countries (especially in rural areas) that lacked it. The mode however is now to provide apps, and has been drawn out as a subsidiary of the original Internet.Org initiative.
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Internet.org, the controversial, net neutrality-activist-provoking service from Facebook to provide certain services to users in emerging economies free of cost, has just been renamed to Free Basics.
Not the one to give up on it, Facebook announced the renaming of Internet.org in front of a small group comprising of Indian media to bring home its importance to the public. For instance, SmartBusiness, a website that helps people learn to launch and run a business, now sees 5x more daily searches within their service since launching in South Africa in July, meaning more people are getting access to important economic information.
Heard about the free Internet.org for all, by Facebook?
Beginning today, users will now be able to access over 60 free services across 19 countries through the Platform.
Following a walkout by many of its publisher partners in India, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had come out in defence of the programme, saying it did not block or throttle services and is not in conflict with Net neutrality. Disclosure: This correspondent was in Menlo Park at the invitation of Facebook. As part of the global initiative, Facebook had partnered with telecom major Reliance Communications to offer free access to over 30 Websites without data charges to users in India.
“We have been in discussions with various stakeholders”. But the unfounded criticism has slowed the conversation.
Daniels said Facebook does not pay service providers for the data and “no money changes hands”. Not only does this expand the range of resources available to people, it gives them more choice and control over the services they can use in the app and website. BabyCenter and MAMA both reach millions of people around the globe with vital health information for pregnancy and parenting, including 3.4 million people through Internet.org’s free basics services alone. ‘We’ve improved the security and privacy of Internet.org. We already encrypt information everywhere possible, and starting today Internet.org also supports secure HTTPS web services as well, ‘ he added.
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The developers have created specific services for connecting historically unconnected people with offerings including English Dose, Mera Doctor, M-Kisan, My Rights, SkyMet among others. Speculating that people would soon make use of the paid services, and other brands would also invest in it, Daniels has stated there is no exclusivity with Reliance in India.
