Social media giant Facebook is partnering with France-based satellite provider Eutelsat, to beam free high-speed internet to the remote parts of Kenya and Nigeria. The move is expected to be opposed by local telecommunications firms.
The two firms plan to accelerate data connectivity in Sub Sahara Africa with a focus on Kenya and Nigeria.
“I am excited to announce our first project to deliver Internet from space as part of our internet.org programme to connect the world,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement Tuesday.
The satellite programme will rely on Facebook’s internet.org platform which has sparked controversies for not reaching its target audience worldwide. The application allows users to freely access the web for a limited amount of time, but some websites will be blocked.
In Kenya, telcos such as like Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya see Facebook’s involvement in data as a big threat to their voice and data business.
Airtel CEO Adil EL Youssefi opines that government must come up with ways of regulating apps like Facebook, Whatsap and Viber since they could be the beginning of the fall of telcos. This is because they offer similar services but ride on infrastructure deployed by local telcos.
However, Facebook plans to bring its satellite services to Kenya and other targeted countries by mid-2016.
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