Facebook is bringing free internet to Zambia with its new app

It’s well known that access to a telecoms network increases economic growth in places that previously didn’t have a telecoms network. Both because the ability to communicate increases information dissemination and also because it eases the problems of coordination. We expect much the same to happen as mobile broadband reaches out to the poor of the world as well. I’m thus very much a fan of Internet.org, the organisation being pushed by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, to get simple and basic mobile broadband access available, for free, in poor countries to poor people. Said service has just launched in Zambia and it occurs to me, just as an idea you understand, that we might want to try expanding Wikipedia in response. Here’s the basic news:” 85% of the 5 billion people without Internet simply can’t afford data plans. So Facebook’s accessibility initiative Internet.org today launches its Android and web app for the developing world with free data access to a limited set of services including Facebook, Messenger, Wikipedia, and Google Search. It also provides local health, employment, weather, and women’s rights resources.”