Globe’s Free Facebook Campaign Serves as Springboard in Bringing a Suite of Free Basic Internet Services to People Worldwide

The highly-successful Free Facebook offer from leading communications company Globe Telecom has served as a springboard and inspiration for the Internet.org app in providing a suite of free basic internet services like health, education, jobs, and other local information to people worldwide who are yet to be connected.

Internet.org is a Facebook-led initiative with the goal of making affordable internet access available to the two thirds of the world who do not have internet connectivity, and to bring the same opportunities to everyone that the connected third of the world has today. It is a brainchild of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Earlier, Jackie Chang, Facebook Product Partnership Manager, spoke to an audience in the Philippines about Globe and the importance of internet connectivity before the two-day Social Good Summit in Manila.

The Social Good Summit took a look at how technology and new media can help solve age-old problems, particularly natural disasters which claim thousands of lives and damage billions of pesos worth of infrastructure, property, and livelihood in the Philippines each year.

“Past events have shown us how important communications is during crisis – from getting in touch with loved one, dispatching emergency teams into affected areas, and providing immediate relief operations, among others. Globe, being a telecommunications company, understands this to the fullest.  Thus, we have partnered with Rappler for the Social Good Summit which seeks to discuss solutions for the greatest challenges of our time and ultimately unlock the potential of technology to make the world a better place,” said Yoly Crisanto, Senior Vice President, Globe Corporate Communications.

Meanwhile, Chang echoed an earlier pronouncement by Zuckerberg that the Philippines became one of Facebook’s first successful test beds for the concept of free Facebook through the partnership with Globe.

“Globe was one of the first telecoms to offer free Facebook to millions of customers and what we saw in the Philippines was astounding. Internet and data usage doubled. Because we were able to do that with Globe, we realized that there’s an opportunity to go beyond just free Facebook and give people access to a set of free basic services,” said Chang.

From the test with Globe, Facebook was able to evolve the program in two ways. Firstly,by working with operators on sustainable business models that will enable mobile operators to provide access to free services and still continue to support the infrastructure necessary to provide connectivity to people. Secondly, by using some of the learnings from the partnership with Globe, Facebook saw an opportunity to add a suite of free basic Internet services that gives people access to different important categories such as health, education, and information.

In late July,Facebook launched the Intenet.org app to make the Internet accessible to more people by providing a set of free basic services. With this app, people can browse a set of useful health, employment and local information services without data charges. The Internet.org app is available to Airtel subscribers in Zambia and Facebook will continue to improve the experience and roll it out to other parts of the world. Facebook is also working with global and local content providers to create an experience that is more usable and understandable for each region. The free basic services are available on smartphones and feature phones.

Currently, while the world sits on cellular infrastructure that covers 85 percent of the total population, Chang said only 30 percent has access to the internet.  Facebook believes affordability and awareness are significant barriers to internet adoption for many.

Basic internet services, she said, can be made affordable to everyone by reducing the cost of building infrastructure, using radio spectrum more efficiently, and building open source hardware, among other steps. There is also a need to reduce the amount of data being transmitted by making more apps that can cache and compress data.

“The future of the world economy is the knowledge economy. If everyone has access to basic financial, health, communication, and education tools, all of us will benefit from the creativity and ideas that others have.  At some point we have all been held back by fear. Like the fear of not knowing an important piece of information that may bring an opportunity or not knowing that piece of information that may put you in danger.  What if you have all that information in the palm of your hand?  This is the question and the problem that we want to answer,” Chang said.

Globe Telecom’s Free Facebook service, which was initially offered for three months, paved the way for the company to double its mobile data user base. Mobile browsing and other data revenues also increased to P11.6 billion as of end-2013, up 42% from P8.2 billion in 2012.  The service was later on extended for another three months and will again be offered within the next few days.

Photo above: Facebook Product Partnership Manager Jackie Chang talks about making the world more open and connected through a suite of free basic internet services