Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has enlisted Samsung
Electronics, Qualcomm and four other companies for a project aimed at
bringing internet access to people around the world who can't afford it,
mirroring efforts by Google and others.
The
project is called Internet.org and will be launched. It focuses on
enabling the next 5 billion people without access to come online,
Zuckerberg said.
"The goal of Internet.org is
to make internet access available to the two-thirds of the world who are
not yet connected and to bring the same opportunities to everyone that
the connected third of the world has today," said Zuckerberg.
Other players in the project include Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia. and Opera Software ASA.
The
partnership will develop lower-cost, higher-quality smartphones and
deploy internet access in underserved communities, Facebook said.
Google
said in June that it had launched a small network of balloons over the
Southern Hemisphere in an experiment it hopes could bring reliable
internet access to the world's most remote regions.
That
pilot program, Project Loon, took off in June from New Zealand's South
Island, using solar-powered, high-altitude balloons that ride the wind
about 12.5 miles, or twice as high as airplanes, above the ground,
Google said.
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