Facebook and the Brazilian government will work together for the introduction of Internet.org to provide the country’s impoverished citizens with free access to the Internet. The local government has given a green light to the partnership, which was announced after the country’s president Dilma Rousseff met Facebook’s CEO at the 7th Summit for Americas last week.
Facebook shows commitment to Internet.org
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will kickstart the Internet.org program in Brazil during his visit to the country in June. Regarding the launch of his digital inclusion plan, Zuckerberg stated that both he and Rousseff seem to believe in the notion of sharing the “social and economic benefits of connectivity.” Zuckerberg further admitted to having discussed with the President prospects of the technology to unite different communities and enhance education.
Initially, the proposed scheme will witness the installing of fast, open Wi-Fi spots across São Paulo’s largest slum, Heliópolis, consisting of about 200,000 inhabitants, says a report from ZDNet. Developing the country’s Internet services has been a major goal for President Rousseff. In addition to this program, the government has planned to launch a national broadband plan by the first half of this year. Such a program will be aimed at ensuring increased investment by government along with the formation of partnerships between public and private sector companies which will work to provide better quality Internet services to citizens at a cheaper rate.
Win-win for all involved parties
According to common belief, the social networking company with this project intends to figure out the challenges it can face while introducing such a program throughout a given country. At the moment, Brazil, with 83 million Facebook users, is second only to the U.S., in terms of the user base for the company.
Internet.org has already been successful in countries such as Columbia and Vietnam. Now with its inception in Brazil, Facebook is looking to augment the number of its users across the globe. Though the service is only restricted to a few benefits, new Internet users can turn into potential customers in the future. Thus, the initiative offers a win-win situation for everyone involved, be it Facebook, the government or prospective low-income consumers unable to afford Internet currently.
