{"id":340063,"date":"2017-05-04T17:30:49","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T09:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1485218"},"modified":"2017-05-04T17:30:49","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T09:30:49","slug":"facebooks-express-wi-fi-launches-commercially-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/facebooks-express-wi-fi-launches-commercially-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook\u2019s Express Wi-Fi launches commercially in India"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Express Wi-Fi<\/a> is one of Facebook\u2019s many connectivity initiatives under its internet.org<\/a> umbrella. Unlike more futuristic projects like the Aquila drone, though, the emphasis here is on existing Wi-Fi technologies and allowing local entrepreneurs to\u00a0resell internet access.<\/p>\n

In India, Facebook is currently working with a number of local ISPs and 500 local entrepreneurs, but that number is about to grow quite a bit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As the company announced today, it\u2019s now launching the service commercially in India and has partnered with the Indian telecom firm Bharti Airtel<\/a>, which plans to bring an additional 20,000 hotspots online, starting in the next few months.\u00a0The other ISPs involved in the project so far are\u00a0 AirJaldi in Uttarakhand, LMES in Rajasthan, Tikona in Gujarat and soon with Shaildhar in Meghalaya.<\/p>\n

The company previously launched<\/a> the service commercially\u00a0in Kenya and it\u2019s also trialing\u00a0it in Tanzania, Nigeria and Indonesia.<\/p>\n

As James Beldock, Facebook\u2019s product manager for Express Wi-Fi, told me, the idea\u00a0behind this project was always to create an entrepreneurial grassroots base for the service.\u00a0That means Airtel and its other ISP partners will continue this work with local entrepreneurs who want to resell internet access to their communities. \u201cOur strategy has always been that these programs work if they are financially sustainable for the partners we work with,\u201d Beldock told me, and added that while Facebook provides the software, it\u2019s the ISPs and their partners that\u00a0decide what to charge, for example. \u201cFacebook\u2019s strategy is to enable partners to make connectivity at scale sustainable, not to dictate pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wi-Fi, of course, is a far easier onramp to the internet than most other means of getting online, Beldock stressed. After all, you don\u2019t need a SIM card or data plan to go online. It also offers a low-cost way of getting online (with daily, weekly or monthly data packs) and the partnership with local entrepreneurs\u00a0could help the local economy.<\/p>\n

As Beldock\u00a0noted, the challenge of expanding the service to other countries isn\u2019t so much technical as it is about understanding the local markets and needs. Chances are, though, that we\u2019ll soon see more commercial launches in the other countries\u00a0where Facebook is already testing the service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Express Wi-Fi is one of Facebook’s many connectivity initiatives under its internet.org umbrella. Unlike more futuristic projects like the Aquila drone, though, the emphasis here is on existing Wi-Fi technologies and allowing local entrepreneurs to resell internet access. The company is currently trialing this project in India, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Indonesia. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-340063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}