Internet.org was launched on August 20, 2013. At the time of launch, Facebook's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a ten-page whitepaper he had written elaborating on the vision. In the paper, he wrote that Internet.org was a further step in the direction of Facebook's past initiatives, such as Facebook Zero, to improve Internet access for people around the world. He also said that "connectivity is a human right."
Internet.org is a partnership between social networking services company Facebook and six companies (Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Opera Software, Nokia and Qualcomm) that plan to bring affordable access to selected Internet services to less developed countries by increasing efficiency, and facilitating the development of new business models around the provision of Internet access.
While Facebook’s free service Internet.org faced criticism in India, it appears that the social network hasn’t given up on it yet. It has now decided to rebrand the product to ‘Free Basics by Facebook’.
Briefing a group of Indian journalists at Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park, California, Chris Daniels, the vice-president of Internet.org said that Free Basics has been launched with the addition of a small set of services across 19 countries — including India — developed on an open platform with new partners. Facebook has an ongoing tie-up with Reliance Communications in India to provide services through internet.org.
The new Free Basics branding will not change the accessibility of Internet.org. Current users of the Android app will be able to continue using it without any interruption. The Web version of Internet.org will redirect to FreeBasics.com. The Internet.org program is also open to all developers, with the 60 new services launched being available in 19 countries.
By Facebook's estimation based on triangulation of data from ISPs, the company's own user database among others, internet.org has thus far enabled access to hitherto unconnected users at a rate of 50% faster accessibility through the access to free and basic services, he said. Many of such users had, Facebook claims based on data, moved on to access the wider internet through paying their service provider further for data plans.
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