Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has announce plans to launch an ‘Express WiFi’ service in India.
The move is not exactly news as the social media site has been testing the service for over a year despite recent reports that Facebook just started testing it. The idea is to bring WiFi service to areas of India that have not been able to access it thus far.
India news personalities have praised the move as it could go a long way towards educating areas of the country that have previously had limited education. However, MediaNama editor Nikhil Pahwa is imploring the company to not censor the service by only offering access to certain sites.
The move is a response to the fact that the company’s Free Basics internet service was restricted by the country’s telecoms regulators, offering connectivity to a few websites only.
The move drew ire from companies and online publications that argued the need for net neutrality when creating such a service as some data providers benefited from the decision, while others were shunned.
Facebook has been testing the service in rural India since 2015, which is not entirely free. The network is working with local technology and business solutions to help connect areas that have little to no WiFi options.
Even with this decision, India will still have too high of a demand for Internet that will not be satisfied until more efforts are brought forward to help rural areas of the country. However, this initiative is a good start.
FB stock fell by a fraction of a percentage Monday.
