Facebook and Other Tech Giants Expand Internet Access in Africa

Nearly two years ago, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, announced an ambitious effort to connect the world’s poorest people to the Internet. Zuckerberg’s vision — carried out with partners through an entity called Internet.org — encompasses a range of strategies, including lasers, drones and satellites beaming Internet signals down from the sky. Today, tens of millions of people have tasted the Internet through it, and as of May, more than nine million of those newcomers have become regular users of Internet services, the company says.

“Internet.org is really showing people the value of the Internet,” said Chris Daniels, vice president of Internet.org The next stage, which Daniels plans to announce at a software developers conference on July 27, is to vastly expand the number of carriers who offer Internet.org.