A year after social networking major Facebook pulled the plug on Free Basics programme, the company on Thursday launched another product under the Internet.org programme 'Express Wi-fi'. The company has got into a tie-up with Bharti Airtel to launch as many as 20,000 wi-fi hotspots.
While Facebook did not elaborate on the current tie-up, it shared plans of get into similar tie-ups with other telecom players, including Reliance Jio and Vodafone, among others. They are also conducting preliminary talks with state governments and the state-owned telecom major BSNL to the setting up public wi-fi hotspots at multiple centres.
The main idea behind the 'Express Wi-fi service' is to offer internet services to users in rural areas where Facebook would handle the back-end technology and its partners would look after the ground work.
Unlike the Free Basics programme, which was lauched in partnership with Reliance Communications in 2015 and provided free access to select websites, the Express Wi-Fi works on a 'paid' model. Also, access will not be restricted to any particular website. Users can log into public wi-fi hotspots and buy daily, weekly or monthly data packs being sold through local entrepreneurs.
Critics of the Free Basics progamme viewed it as a violation of the principle of net neutrality that advocates equal treatment of internet traffic.
It finally pulled the plug on the programme in India in February last year after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) barred operators from charging discriminatory rates for internet access based on content. The company continues, however, to run the Free Basics programme across many countries.
While Airtel plans to roll out hotspots in a phased manner, partner firm Facebook is looking for 'maximum expansion'.
"Our goal is to grow the number of Express Wi-Fi hotspots in India rapidly. India has a population of about 1.3 billion people, but according to Trai's performance indicator report, only 390 million people are connected to the internet," said Munish Seth, Facebook Asia Pacific Head of Connectivity Solutions.
He added that Facebook is working with internet services providers (ISPs) to resolve connectivity issues. The company has been beta testing the product in India and has been running over 700 wifi hotspots acorss thec ountry, while working with around 500 village level entrepreneurs.
Internet user base in the country has seen a significant jump in the last few years, helped by smartphones becoming more affordable and data prices falling, especially after Reliance Jio rolled out services.
Global tech giant Google has rolled out free Internet access through public wifi hotspots at 100 railway stations in partnership with RailTel. However Seth believes that the Indian market is big enough for all players to cater to consumers.
"The market still remains under-penetrated and all efforts (by other players) will help expand it further," Seth said. Asked about the role Facebook will play in the programme, he said that the company will only provide the platform and solutions.
"We will not charge telecom operators or entrepreneurs. The operator decides on the pricing and will handle the data as internet traffic flows through their system. We are just providing the solutions," he added.
Facebook might also bundle its other products into its Express Wi-fi service and make them available in the rural market. At present, the service is available in Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Meghalaya.