Internet.org and Airtel Zero bring free Internet in developing countries

Internet.org, a Zuckerberg project, is currently working for free Internet in developing countries like India. They want to make Internet accessible for the public especially the services like Facebook, Google, Wikipedia and other useful websites. This is to solve the growing concern of expensive data charges from telecommunication companies.

In a country like India, net neutrality is an important thing considering the increasing number of smartphone users. People from this country are using Facebook when communicating with friends and normally they are having several applications that require Internet connection. The problem is they have to pay for unlimited surfing from data plan.

Facebook Company, through their Internet.org platform, is collaborating with Airtel Zero to work on a solution for this existing gap with the Indian customers. Hopefully they will be able to extend their free internet to the rest of developing countries.

There is a growing debate on net neutrality on the aspect of providing a free Internet and equal content. It is not the same issue of controlling the Internet speed for each user like what Comcast did in United States. In India, their main concern is the limitation of Internet accessibility where users cannot access some websites and the apps provided are in low data version.

According to Internet.org and Airtel Zero, their first goal is to start providing Internet to people who haven't tried accessing it. The collaboration is still open for any third-party apps that are not part of free access they are giving to users. If ever users will access other apps or sites, they will be charged with the usual Internet charges.

The biggest challenge for the companies working on this free Internet, is they have to shoulder all the expenses in establishing a local Internet tower for those developing countries.

Other alternative just to give free Internet in the market like India is to provide advertisement or promotional campaign of the project. Advertisers can do something to promote free access on apps and Internet without limitation. They can provide free Internet as a reward for watching ads of a particular company or free net once you buy a particular item.

There are still many other ways to pursue this free Internet project while Internet.org partnership with Airtel is growing. In the coming years, all people from the rest of the world will be able to have Internet access for free.