Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Countries in sub-Saharan Africa most affected as Meta halts low-cost Express Wi-Fi

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Readers may recall when Facebook tried to create a limited Facebook-only version of the internet in India called Free Basics. As covered here, that was prohibited by the government in 2016, but Facebook continued its efforts with a more open (but still tied to Facebook) wifi access program called Express Wifi. By last year it covered 30 nations across Africa, Asia and South America. Anyhow, the news today is that the program is being shut down. "While we are concluding our work on this program to focus on developing other projects, we remain committed to working with partners across the telecom ecosystem to deliver better connectivity," said Meta in the notice.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 23, 2024 04:34 a.m.

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