Facebook to Bring the Internet to the Globe in Spite of Microsoft Skepticism
On Tuesday evening, Facebook’s CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced on the Facebook Newsroom the rollout of internet.org with the mission of bringing internet access to those in the world who don’t have it.
This announcement comes in spite of criticism by Microsoft CEO and co-founder Bill Gates. Gates takes the position that there are more serious issues in the world such as fighting malaria and other diseases in developing countries.
Gates stated his position earlier this month in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek after being asked about Google’s Project Loon which, like Facebook, wants to bring internet connectivity to everywhere on the globe.
The Facebook project which is detailed on internet.org declares partnerships with major leaders in technology such as Samsung, Ericsson, Nokia, and others. The partnerships will drive joint technology projects with the objectives of making internet access affordable and efficient.
A third objective of the Facebook initiative is spawning new business models that provide services to realize the prior two objectives of affordability and efficiency.
Facebook’s overall goal is to bring internet access to what it estimates to be two-thirds of the world without it.
Earlier this month as part of Project Loon, Google began testing balloons filled with internet connection devices designed to provide access in remote places with no supporting communications infrastructure.
The balloons float in the stratosphere with equipment to allow remote computer users to connect. Signals are floated to other balloons until they can be downloaded to an internet service provider (ISP) which handles connecting to the internet. The signals can be transmitted at speeds up to 3G quality.
Technology partners of the Facebook project will look for ways to reduce the costs associated with delivering data. They are also charged with finding new data compression and caching solutions plus designing networks and other frameworks that reduce bandwidth requirements.
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