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Facebook to beam satellite internet into Africa

Johannesburg - Social network Facebook has inked a partnership deal with satellite provider Eutelsat to get more Africans online.

Facebook is set to tap the AMOS-6 satellite which will use “spot beams” to cover parts of West, East and Southern Africa with internet connectivity.

The satellite is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2016 and help Facebook with its Internet.org strategy, which helps get more people online by offering free internet services.

“Facebook’s mission is to connect the world and we believe that satellites will play an important role in addressing the significant barriers that exist in connecting the people of Africa,” said Chris Daniels, vice president of Internet.org in a statement.  

“We are looking forward to partnering with Eutelsat on this project and investigating new ways to use satellites to connect people in the most remote areas of the world more efficiently,” said Daniels.

Providing more detail on the partnership, a joint statement from Facebook and Eutelsat read that internet data capacity will be shared between Eutelsat and Facebook.

Eutelsat also said it is establishing a London-based company for its African broadband business.

Founder and former CEO of Tiscali International Network, Laurent Grimaldi, is set to lead the company.

Criticism of Internet.org

Meanwhile, Facebook’s Internet.org service has come under fire for connecting people to free internet but then limiting their online experiences to just a few, selected websites.

In places such as India, for example, Internet.org has been accused of violating the concept of net neutrality, which seeks to treat all web traffic equally.

In South Africa, Internet.org is available through the country’s third largest mobile network Cell C.

But in a bid to tackle questions around the openness of Internet.org, Facebook last month launched its Free Basics Platform.

Free Basics is a Facebook platform intended to help any developer create services that integrate with Internet.org.

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