Facebook has reached a deal to have free internet beamed to some of the most remote parts of Africa via satellite. This social network has agreed on a partnership with Eutelsat, a French satellite internet operator, to transmit internet connections to offline parts of sub-Saharan Africa from next year.
Through Facebook’s internet.org initiative, the company offers access to a number of services including weather, news, health and Facebook itself, for free. According to source, Facebook had abandoned plans to build its own satellite, which would have cost up to $1 billion (£660 million), earlier this year.
Chris Daniels, the head of internet.org. said, “Facebook’s mission is to connect the world and we believe that satellites will play an important role in addressing the significant barriers that exist in connecting the people of Africa.”
He also added “We are looking forward to partnering with Eutelsat on this project and investigating new ways to use satellites to connect people in the most remote areas of the world more efficiently.”
Facebook’s internet.org initiative has come under fire, with critics saying it favours Facebook over rival services and violates the principles of “net neutrality” by providing some services for free.
Eutelsat, which provides satellite coverage to much of Europe and Russia, said it would set up a new office in London to lead its African operations, which will be led by former Tiscali boss Laurent Grimaldi.
Facebook is also experimenting with drones to beam the internet to remote locations and is starting to test the technology.