Facebook’s team in Israel has taken a leading role in developing a platform that will help make the Internet accessible to hundreds of millions of people in developing countries.
Facebook’s connectivity initiative, founded in 2013, has unveiled a suite of new technologies aiming at accelerating Internet access worldwide and helping more than 300 million people connect to it.
Developers at Facebook’s R&D center in Tel Aviv are leading the Express Wi-Fi project, a broad initiative of the company that works to make the Internet accessible to people in developing countries.
As part of the project, Facebook’s Israeli teams have developed a platform that helps local entrepreneurs, network providers and cellular network operators in developing countries to provide cost-effective and fast Wi-Fi solutions.
At the launch event last week, Facebook said its platform enables providers to operate their data packages efficiently and cost-effectively, thus ensuring cheaper and higher-quality Internet for end users. The venture already operates in more than 30 countries, including Argentina, Brazil and Nigeria, the company said.
Facebook also announced it would help develop an innovative transatlantic cable that is expected to connect Europe to the US and provide 200 times more Internet capacity than current transatlantic cables. The company is also involved with other subterranean cable projects, including the 2Africa project, the longest submarine cable system in the world, which will connect Africa, Europe and Asia.
Facebook estimates that this cable will add more than $422 billion in GDP to Pacific Asia between 2021 and 2025 and create 3.7 million new employment opportunities in the region.
Facebook also presented Terragraph, a new wireless technology to deliver high-speed, fiber-to-air Internet. This technology is already used by more than 6,500 households in Anchorage, Alaska, and will now also be deployed in Perth, Australia, one of the most isolated cities.