Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined a dramatic future for the mobile web this afternoon at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Facebook will partner with between three and five major wireless carriers to provide free, basic mobile phone access to everyone on the planet - with the emphasis on developing countries.
Only about 1 billion of the Earth's 7 billion people have mobile phones currently. But 80% of the rest of the population lives within areas covered by 2G or 3G mobile web access,Facebook founder Zuckerberg said.
The problem is that those people, who have never accessed the web, don't know why it might be useful to them. And they also can't afford the hundreds or thousands of dollars a year it costs in the U.S. and Europe to maintain a phone and its data plan. But they might have a dollar or two to pay for basic access to messages and Facebook.
So Facebook wants invest, with a set of wireless carriers, in basic phone access for everyone. The effort is part of his vision for Internet.org, an initiative to bring internet access to everyone in the world. The goal is to bring everyone basic data services - like search, access to the weather, and Facebook - for free. Zuckerberg describes it as "the on-ramp for the Internet."
"This model isn't short-term profitable for Facebook. I think we're going to lose money on this for quite a while," Zuckerberg said. "But this is why I started Facebook."
Facebook will partner with between three and five major wireless carriers to provide free, basic mobile phone access to everyone on the planet - with the emphasis on developing countries.
Only about 1 billion of the Earth's 7 billion people have mobile phones currently. But 80% of the rest of the population lives within areas covered by 2G or 3G mobile web access,Facebook founder Zuckerberg said.
The problem is that those people, who have never accessed the web, don't know why it might be useful to them. And they also can't afford the hundreds or thousands of dollars a year it costs in the U.S. and Europe to maintain a phone and its data plan. But they might have a dollar or two to pay for basic access to messages and Facebook.
So Facebook wants invest, with a set of wireless carriers, in basic phone access for everyone. The effort is part of his vision for Internet.org, an initiative to bring internet access to everyone in the world. The goal is to bring everyone basic data services - like search, access to the weather, and Facebook - for free. Zuckerberg describes it as "the on-ramp for the Internet."
"This model isn't short-term profitable for Facebook. I think we're going to lose money on this for quite a while," Zuckerberg said. "But this is why I started Facebook."
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