Facebook Inc’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has enlisted Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Qualcomm Inc and four other companies for a project aimed at bringing Internet access to people around the world who can’t afford it, mirroring efforts by Google Inc and others.<\/p>\n
The project is called Internet.org and will be launched Wednesday. It focuses on enabling the next 5 billion people without access to come online, Zuckerberg said.<\/p>\n
“The goal of Internet.org is to make Internet access available to the two-thirds of the world who are not yet connected and to bring the same opportunities to everyone that the connected third of the world has today,” said Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n
Other players in the project include Ericsson , MediaTek Inc , Nokia , and Opera Software ASA .<\/p>\n
The partnership will develop lower-cost, higher-quality smartphones and deploy Internet access in underserved communities, Facebook said. (http:\/\/link.reuters.com\/zen52v)<\/p>\n
Google said in June that it had launched a small network of balloons over the Southern Hemisphere in an experiment it hopes could bring reliable Internet access to the world’s most remote regions.<\/p>\n
That pilot program, Project Loon, took off in June from New Zealand’s South Island, using solar-powered, high-altitude balloons that ride the wind about 12.5 miles, or twice as high as airplanes, above the ground, Google said.<\/p>\n
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