Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, announced that it was shutting down its Express Wi-Fi service, which, in partnership with other companies, provided wireless Internet access in more than thirty countries.
“Together with our partners, we have helped expand public Wi-Fi access for people in more than thirty countries through the Express Wi-Fi platform,” the company said. "As we complete our work on this program to focus on developing other projects, we remain committed to working with partners across the telecommunications ecosystem to deliver better connectivity."
Launched in XNUMX, Express Wi-Fi was a part of Facebook's connectivity push, which was looking to capture the next billion users who had bad or no internet connections. The group has also focused on Free Basics, the service that offers Internet services completely free to the end user.
“As we complete our work on the program later this year, we will work closely with Express Wi-Fi partners to minimize the impact on their businesses and customer connectivity,” added Meta, hinting that anyone with an account on the service might not be completely safe. left cold.
the next billion
For many years, Mark Zuckerberg has been focused on locating the next billion users. In a white paper (no longer hosted on Facebook), Zuckerberg discussed the occasions, jobs, and connections that could be created by connecting the unconnected.
In reality, these ambitions have been really hard to achieve for logistical and social reasons.
Projects to project Wi-Fi in areas that are difficult to access with drones, for example, were often impractical, even with considerable investment and time. In other cases, people in developing countries often had access to the Internet but felt little need for it.
Facebook, and now Meta, has finally scaled back most of its ambitions except for Free Basics, and Express Wi-Fi is the latest example.