Facebook is partnering with India's Bharti Airtel to bring new services to 17 African countries as part of its “Free Basics” program.
"In South Africa earlier today, we announced with Airtel Africa that we will be bringing Internet.org free basic services to all 17 countries where they operate," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO. "Internet.org first launched in Zambia and today half of the 30 countries with Free Basics are in Africa."
Free Basics will be offered to Airtel customers in Burkina Faso, Chad, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
Zuckerberg also noted that Facebook had partnered to launch a satellite to provide Internet coverage to remote areas of Sub-Saharan Africa starting in 2016.
It's a big day for connecting Africa. In South Africa earlier today, we announced with Airtel Africa that we will be bringing Internet.org free basic services to all 17 countries where they operate.Internet.org first launched in Zambia and today half of the 30 countries with Free Basics are in Africa.These new Internet.org launches will bring free services to Burkina Faso, Chad, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Uganda.We also recently partnered to launch a satellite to provide internet coverage to remote areas of Sub-Saharan Africa starting in 2016. We've also partnered with the Praekelt Foundation to give developers the tools they need to build free basic services to reach people just coming online. Girl Effect is one of these services and in this video Elisha is using it as part of Free Basics in Kenya to access information to help empower girls to become leaders. Connecting people across the African continent is critical to our mission. We’re going to keep pushing forward to develop new ways to bring people online until the whole world is connected.
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, November 17, 2015
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